


Family Ties

by aminal24



Series: Family [1]
Category: Graceland (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Season/Series 01, Slow Burn, Undercover Missions, after the whole Lauren thing, but with a few twists and turns, follows same general plot points, pike never happens, technical analyst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:08:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 66,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25473664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aminal24/pseuds/aminal24
Summary: What if Paul Briggs had a sister? What if she was suspicious of her brother? What if she started to look into the new guy at Graceland?What started out as an innocent check-up on her brother turns out to be way more than what Jenny Briggs anticipated. They say that Graceland is like a family, but as everyone in the house is going to learn the hard way, sometimes family has it's own set of complications.
Relationships: Mike Warren/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Family [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1885822
Comments: 13
Kudos: 7





	1. Initiation

**Author's Note:**

> This was an old story I had written a while ago that I rediscovered thanks to quarantine. So I thought I would revive and spruce it up. I hope you enjoy it!

“Mikey!” A voice boomed into Mike's room, startling him awake. Through his sleepy gaze, he saw Briggs standing in the doorway. “Come on, sleeping beauty, we got work to do. Downstairs in ten.” He encouraged before disappearing down the hall again. With a grunt, Mike let his head fall back on his all too comfortable pillow and happened to glance at his alarm clock. It was 6:00 a.m. Today was supposed to be his day-off.

However, he was not one to argue with authority. Begrudgingly, he pushed himself out of bed, quickly and almost automatically made his bed military style, and threw on a navy-blue tank top and sweatpants. It had been about a month since he had first moved into Graceland, a place where FBI, Customs, and DEA agents live. Originally, he had requested to be placed in Quantico, but then last minute was shipped to the West Coast.

Mike glanced in the mirror just to see if he was a total mess. His short blonde hair was just a bit awry, which was abnormal since Mike kept it looking professional all the time. A couple of bags had formed under his blue eyes. Probably from doing late night research on Briggs again. Ever since being assigned to investigate his training officer at Graceland, Mike had been working tirelessly, tracking his credit cards, and even digging into his past investigations that he had led. But of course, Briggs couldn't know about any of it, so it all had to be done in secret, meaning late at night. Deciding that he looked good enough for the time being, Mike Warren strolled out of his room, and made his way down to the kitchen. 

Paul Briggs was sitting at the dining room table, eating half of an orange and oatmeal, while Johnny, who was seated in the seat across from him, was explaining, well, more like bragging, about a girl he had just hooked up with the night before. Mike couldn't help but smile. There were always two things on Johnny's mind, and everyone in Graceland was convinced that he couldn't think of anything else: Girls and work, but most of the time, girls.

Quietly, he made his way to the fridge to get some orange juice, when Johnny stopped his story to see who was moving about. “Hey, yo, Mikey! You sleep well, bro?” He greeted a little too cheerfully.

“Why don't you ask me that after I've had a chance to wake up.” Mike responded, sipping on the orange juice, and making his way to the table.

“Aw, what's the matter, sunshine?” Briggs teased. “Too much booze, not enough snooze?”

“I didn't drink that much.” Mike defended, recalling the night before when the group had gone down to their favorite bar, The Drop. “Besides, it was my understanding that I had the day-off today.”

“Yeah, well, something important just came up.” Briggs said, sitting forward in his chair and leaning his elbows on the table. “Last night, an important contact came into town.”

“A contact? Meaning a dealer?” Mike reasoned, already thinking of a million different possibilities for a cover.

Briggs shrugged his muscular shoulders. “Not exactly. Let's just say, she knows a lot about many different operations going on, and we just happen to be on a friendly basis with her.”

Mike's eyebrows twitched. “She?”

“Yeah, man. This girl is hella connected and she's a real hot one, too.” Johnny chided, biting into his breakfast burrito.

“And by 'hot', I hope you mean she's a spit-fire.” Briggs said, giving Johnny one of his infamous secret looks. Johnny avoided his gaze. “Because there is no doubt, Mike, she will talk circles around you like a merry-go-round.”

“So, what exactly are we talking here?” Mike asked, also leaning forward in his chair.

“Very basic exchange.” Briggs answered. “Your job will be to establish contact with her and see if you can gain some insight on the Heraldo case. I assume you read that report.” Mike nodded. Heraldo Monterro was a minor drug lord in the area but was gaining fame and fortune fast. The FBI was keeping close tabs on him. Mike had read the report forward and backward, like he had for any other case.

“But why me?” The rookie asked. “Why can’t you make the exchange?”

Briggs and Johnny shared another brief but secret look, as Briggs leaned forward. “Let’s just say that I’m a little too close to the situation to be impartial. Besides, you want in on the big cases, right?” The blonde man nodded, recalling his struggle to get in with Bello. Mike tended to be pretty ambitious and wanted to shake his “rookie” status quickly. “Well, consider this an audition of sorts.” Paul Briggs continued. “Do this, and maybe I’ll consider you for other ops. We'll be listening in on the whole thing, no guns, no handcuffs, just information. Got it?”

Mike nodded again. “Sounds easy enough.” He stood up to return the orange juice to the fridge, then slipped upstairs to change into more appropriate clothing.

Once he was sure Mike was safely out of earshot, Johnny leaned in towards Paul with a mischievous smile. “Who do you think will pull the gun first?”

Scooping the last of his oatmeal in his mouth, Briggs rose to put his dirty dishes in the fridge. “I’m not a betting man, JT. But if I was, my money is on the damsel.”

>>>

Mike walked along the boardwalk, nearing the small cafe, where he was told “she” would be. Jenny, he was told her name was. And apparently, she was a real sharp one, so Mike had to be careful how to approach this. Taking a deep sigh, and remembering what Johnny and Briggs had told him, he slipped into his character.

The cafe called the Sun's Basket, was mostly an outdoor restaurant. Tables with orange and yellow umbrellas hovering over them were lined on both sides of the boardwalk and was already busy with tourists and surfers. Mike scanned the tables for Jenny, based on a description told by Briggs. Finally, he saw her.

Jenny was sitting in a table closest to the beach, typing away at a laptop. She was exactly how Briggs had described her. Her long brown hair was pulled over one shoulder and flowed past her shoulders. Her skin was just the slightest bit sun-kissed but looked darker due to the bright yellow halter top she was wearing. She wore jean shorts with built in holes on the legs, and plain black flip flops on her feet.

Mike made a beeline towards her table, and as he did, the waiter brought her plate to her, giving him a better look at her face. She had delicate features, her hazel eyes were wild and sparkling. As the waiter set down her plate, of what looked like a breakfast burrito, bacon and eggs, and a piece of toast, she closed her laptop and smiled sweetly at him, flashing her all too perfect teeth.

“ _Muchos gracias, compadre,_ ” She thanked the waiter, then turned to her breakfast in front of her. It didn't appear that she noticed Mike's fast approach, for she was too busy admiring the large amounts in front of her. She picked up her breakfast burrito, and was about to take a bite, when Mike sat down casually in the chair across from her, trying to make it look like they had planned to meet.

Jenny eyed the strange guy, her mouth still open in anticipation for the burrito. Her perfect eyebrows knit together perplexed.

“Hello, Jenny,” Mike greeted with a smirk, acting like he oozed confidence.

Jenny closed her mouth and lowered her burrito. “Hi,” She greeted carefully. “Listen, I’m waiting for someone, so nice try, slick, but I’m not interested.”

He maintained his cool. “Who says that the guy you’re waiting for hasn’t arrived?” He questioned gesturing to himself.

Her hazel eyes scanned him over quickly, eyebrows still fixed in confusion. “Look, you're hot and all, but as you can see, I was just about to make out with this gorgeous burrito, so if you could be so kind as to _vaminos_ in the opposite direction, that would be swell.” Then Jenny went to take a big bite of the burrito, trying to give the hint that she was done talking.

Mike snickered. “Yeah, Mr. Paul said you liked your food.” Briggs had told Mike to refer to him as Mr. Paul, being as that was his cover.

Jenny stopped mid-bite and stared at Mike. Slowly, she lowered the burrito and swallowed thickly. “Mr. Paul, huh?” She said. Mike could see the realization in her eyes. “You work for Paul, then?”

“Indeed, I am. I'm one of his newer recruits. As you can see, he wasn't able to make today, so...”

Then, Jenny tilted her head to the side. “Really?” She asked. “I just spoke with him yesterday and he told me that he would for sure be here, no matter what.”

Inside, Mike felt cornered, and a bit panicked. But he remained calm, his brain working lightening quick. He glanced around to make sure no one was listening in and leaned forward. Jenny did the same, eager to hear what this guy had to say. “Well, you know Mr. Paul, being head of the operations out here,” Mike started to explain. “Someone tipped him off about a spy in the works, so he had to go and see to it that he was under the radar for a bit, you know.”

“Oh, I see,” Jenny leaned back in her chair, smiling, her right hand subconsciously reaching up for the charm necklace hanging from her neck. “That's very clever, well done.” She muttered, looking the guy over one more time. He was a very handsome guy, his chiseled features made him look much older than what he probably was. But then her eyes fell to his neck, where a shark tooth hung on a chain. _Gotcha!_ She thought. “So is he recruiting straight out of the Boy Scouts now? Or is this some sort of a frat pledge thing?” Jenny smiled.

Mike chuckled slightly, “Don’t worry, I'm able to get the job done. I'm Mike, by the way.” He held out his hand for her to shake.

His hands were surprisingly soft, yet firm. Her hands felt smooth, and careful. “Nice to meet you.” She said. “But I was under the assumption that this was an exchange. Meaning I give you something, you give me something back. Did you bring it?”

He nodded and kicked the backpack he had placed underneath the table over to her. She went to place it in her lap and opened the main pocket. “Oh, yes!” She squealed, reaching in and grabbing a package of Oreos. Mike tried his best to hide his surprise. Briggs had told him that there were cookies in the backpack, but he just assumed that it was code word for some drug. “Oh, he sure knows what I like.” She remarked before putting the cookies back in the bag and placing it underneath her chair. “So, what does _Mr. Paul_ want to know?” She asked, saying “Mr. Paul” as if it was a new word she learned.

“Word is you've got some intel on the Heraldo business.” He responded.

“Ha, Monterro,” She glanced down, smiling. “He's still worried about that useless son of a fleabag?”

“He's interested.”

“Well, I haven't heard much on the Heraldo front. Mostly because I've had my hands in other people's pockets lately. I'm surprised that he didn't ask you about Fernandez, or Viktor, as they are planning on shutting down his operation.” Jenny locked eye contact with Mike, studying every twitch, also making Mike feel even more cornered. Briggs had never mentioned any of those guys in his briefing. _Be cool, Mike, just go with it._

“Why do you think he’s not here right now?” He countered. “There may be a spy, but there’s also a hit out on him. You really think he would agree to meet with you out in the open like this?”

He had barely even flinched. Jenny was very impressed. “Well, I guess that makes sense. Word is Heraldo is getting twitchy about the feds closing in on him. You a fed, Mike?” Her eye bored into his soul.

After swallowing, he scoffed. “Really? You’re going to ask me that?”

“I don’t know you, Mike. And therefore, I don’t trust you. You seem way too clean cut to be in Paul’s operation. Now answer the question, are you a fed?”

“Mr. Paul said you were paranoid.”

“Yeah, I guess I was born with that character flaw. You still haven’t answered my question.” Very slowly, her hand moved behind her.

Mike reasoned she might be reaching for a gun. There were way too many civilians around to start a shoot-out, but they didn’t have a tactical team at the ready to arrest her. He had to think quickly. “Fine, alright, I’m not a fed. Do you really not trust Paul’s judgement to hire a cop?”

Her hand stilled for a moment. “I hear that these undercover cops are pretty sweet talkers. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them wormed their way in.”

He tried to breathe slowly, in order to slow his heart rate. He was running out of moves. Then, suddenly, inspiration struck. “Okay, then. You think I’m a cop? Then shoot me. If I was an undercover agent, I would have a team ready to move in you after shots were fired, meaning you would be arrested. But if I’m not a cop, that would mean that you shot someone in a public place in broad daylight with a bunch witnesses.” He gestured to the several patrons on the patio, unaware of the tense situation. “Either way, you’re screwed. So, go ahead. Call my bluff.”

There was a moment of silence. Jenny still studied Mike with her cold eyes. He did his best to keep his cover, even though, he was pretty sure she could see right through him. Suddenly, she broke into a huge smile and laughed. Mike didn't even try to hide his confusion. “I gotta hand it to you, man,” She said. “You are really good under pressure. I mean, really good.”

“I'm sorry?” He asked, momentarily forgetting about his cover.

“Let me guess, Paulie briefed you over the breakfast table, huh? Not a lot of information, but it was going to get you a leg up in his eyes. I tell ya, not many of your guys can go toe-to-toe with me. You ought to be congratulated.” For once, Mike was at a loss for words. What was she talking about? “Paulie, where did you find this guy?” She asked, loudly, as if speaking into a microphone. “And can I borrow him for the weekend?”

“Look, I'm not sure-”

“Oh, come on,” Jenny reached across the table and cupped his shark tooth necklace in her hand. “A necklace transmitter? I taught him that.” She yanked on the chain, and it snapped off of his neck before he could even blink. Jenny held the tooth up close to her mouth and spoke into it. “Paulie, come on out. You don't want me to come in there after you. Again. Remember what happened last time? Don't think I won't, Paulie.”

“How many times have I asked you to stop calling me that?” A voice from behind her said. She turned and saw Briggs standing there with his arms crossed. 

Jenny smiled. “And how many times have I asked you to stop sending me newbies? Come here.” She flung herself into his arms and embraced him into a back breaking hug. Mike just sat there, his jaw hanging open and his eyebrows arched in confusion. Jenny placed a kiss on Briggs' cheek and then, broke off the embrace. “I've missed you.”

“Not as much as I have missed you, Jennster.” He smiled, playfully ruffling her hair.

Johnny appeared from behind Briggs. “Hey, there, chica,” He greeted, in his usual suave manner.

“Hey, Johnny.”

“Don't suppose I get a hug, too?”

“Not on your life, kid.” She rolled her eyes.

“Oh, come on, girl, what's wrong with a hug?” He pouted, holding out his hands.

“Two words: Wandering hands.”

“Yeah, even after I threatened to shoot him between the eyes.” Briggs chuckled.

“Hey, when there's an ass that needs grabbing, I just gotta go for it, ya know?” Johnny defended, which made him receive a punch in the chest from Briggs.

Rolling her eyes again, Jenny turned back to the confused Mike, who was just silently watching everything. “And then, there's you, Mike.” She said, smiling sweetly. “Now, honestly, I don't get impressed very often, but you really impressed me. Not to mention, you are easy on the eyes. I don’t normally go for the goody-two shoes, frat boy routine, but I guess I can make an exception. How about I buy you a drink sometime?”

“Um, maybe later,” Mike said, finally snapping out of his confusion. He stood up to join the rest of the group.

“Is that a promise?” Jenny asked, winking.

Briggs came up behind her, and placed his arm around her shoulders. “Down girl. Sorry, Mikey, but the thing about Jenny is she is relentless. Once she likes something, there's no pulling her back.”

“You jealous, Paulie?” She looked up at him innocently.

“Oh, not even a little.” He answered, placing a kiss on her forehead.

“Yeah, who are you?” Mike finally asked.

Jenny slapped Briggs in the stomach, making him grunt in the process. “You didn't tell him?”

“Tell me what?” Mike was getting very frustrated. Briggs kept a lot of things to himself, but when he was practically dangling it in front of Mike's face, it was just annoying.

“Well, if I told him, then it wouldn't have been a surprise.”

“Surprise?”

“Now, don't be mean, Paulie. Can't you see you’re freaking him out?” Jenny held out her hand. “The name is Jenny Briggs.”

Mike took her hand and nodded slightly, still slightly confused. “Briggs? So, what? You're his wife or something?”

Both Briggs and Jenny laughed. “Being married to that guy?” Jenny snickered. “Oh, I do dearly pity the fool.”

“Well, then, what?” Mike asked, tired of the games.

“I'm not his wife.” Jenny said plainly. “I'm his sister.”


	2. Suspect

Jenny, Briggs, Johnny, and Mike all went back to Graceland, much to Mike's surprise, since he was told that no one was to ever find out about their location. But here Jenny was, walking around the place, as if she had been there before. She never needed to be told where the bathroom was, or which drawer had the silverware. She just knew. She even knew that Lauren had been reassigned to a different location. Not to mention, she seemed to be best buddies with practically everyone in the house.

Jenny greeted Charlie, Paige, and Jakes, as if they were at a high school reunion. She would ask about their investigations, and they would tell her all the details of their cases, even things Mike didn't know about. They even had some inside jokes. This mysterious sister seemed to be way more than meets the eye. Mike was just getting more confused by the minute.

“So, is anyone going to tell me what's going on here?” Mike finally asked, after they just laughed about Jakes accidentally punching Jenny in the stomach when he was new. All heads turned towards him, as if they had just remembered that he was there.

“I suppose you do deserve an explanation of some sort,” Jenny nodded, walking over to Mike's side, who was leaning against the wall, as they were all crowded around the island in the kitchen. “But you're smart, Mike. I'll let you take a guess, but only one. Who do you think I am?” She raised a teasing eyebrow, like she was giving him permission to look her over.

Mike looked at her more closely. This was one part of his training that he was actually good at; reading people. Like he had noticed before, her skin was only slightly sun-kissed, so she didn't spend much time outside. Therefore, she had an indoor job. There were slight wrinkles around her eyes, as if she spent a lot of time squinting, meaning she wore glasses or needed contacts, possibly had a desk job, or at least a job that required looking at a computer screen. It was possible that she was an agent, but her arm muscles were not as sturdy, in fact, it hardly looked as if she had much arm muscles at all. Most agents have the slightest bit of upper arm muscle, mainly because it's easier holding a gun for long periods of time. But it was obvious from her conversations with the others, that she was very knowledgeable with federal operations. The eye wrinkles, vast knowledge of federal investigations, the fact that she was typing on a computer before he met her, that could only lead to a couple jobs. “You're a technical analyst.” Mike finally announced, earning a smile from Jenny.

She looked over to the others, who were nodding in amazement. Johnny and Jakes clapped for him. “So, you're not just a pretty face after all.” Jenny remarked. “You are correct, surprisingly. I know, I don't look like your stereotypical computer nerd. Mostly, because I don't wear braces, nor do I live in my mother’s basement. But there is one minor detail you missed.” Mike looked at her perplexedly. “I am not just a technical analyst. I'm _the_ technical analyst.”

This brought many snickers and nods from the rest of the group. “Yeah, man,” Johnny spoke up. “She's crazy with the keyboard.”

“I think I can manage this, thanks Johnny.” Jenny said, not even looking over at him. Mike felt as though, he was in for some sort of lecture. “Don’t get me wrong I did go through a bit of the FBI academy, so I have some other skills, but the computer is where my expertise lies. I've been more of a freelance agent lately, meaning that I mainly go where the money takes me. But still, I'm a federal agent, so I have access to most things.”

“So then, how do you even know about this place?” Mike questioned. “Even certain FBI agents don't even know about this.”

Her perfectly plucked eyebrows raised slightly, seeing a challenge. “Because as I'm sure you already know, my big bro's not one to necessarily keep in touch, even with family. When he got assigned to Graceland, he completely stopped all communication with me, so, after some intense digging and applying all of my technological genuis, I was able to track him down. Now, whenever I'm in the neighborhood, I stop by. Because, someone's gotta keep an eye on the little rascal.”

She walked over to Briggs, and ruffled his short brown hair, earning a couple snickers from the group. Mike felt like letting out a few chuckles himself. Briggs was this tough guy, head of the house type figure. But with his little sister around, he seemed less boss-like and more human. “In other words, don't get on her bad side, Warren.” Briggs warned Mike.

“Yeah, don't mess with me, newbie,” She agreed, making her way back over to Mike. “Because there is not anything I can’t find out. So I promise you, no matter where you go, or what you do, I will track your ass down and give you hell. Got it?” Her eyes locked on Mike's, who was a bit speechless.

“Yes, ma'am,” He replied flatly.

Then, Jenny broke into a wide smile. “Good.” She squealed, before turning on her heels and disappearing into the hall, no doubt to go to her room or rather Lauren's old room.

Mike looked to the rest of the gang, who were all staring at him with smirks on their faces. Evidently, they had been through the same thing. “She's real sweetheart, isn't she?” Charlie smiled.

“Yeah, real sweet.” Mike sighed, sinking into one of the chairs in the dining area.

“Buck up, Levi,” Jakes encouraged. “She's just testing you. Did the same to nearly everyone else in this house.”

“Yeah, except when she did it to me, I pulled a gun on her,” Paige admitted, chewing on some pretzels. “You handled it better than I did.” She then walked down the hall, saying that she had to go make a few phone calls.

Soon, everyone went back to their business, leaving just Briggs and Mike in the kitchen. “You could've at least warned me that she was your sister, you know.” Mike said.

Briggs walked to the cabinet and pulled out a bottle of rum. “Yeah, but you needed a bit of an initiation, and Jenn's the perfect person to give it to you.” He explained, while searching the cupboards for a glass.

Mike tried to hide his disapproval of him drinking at ten in the morning, although that was nothing out of the ordinary. “Well, one thing's for sure, you have one hell of a little sister.” He chuckled.

“I know, try growing up with her,” Briggs joked. “Now, you get the rest of your day off, Agent Warren. Make it count.” With a wink, he waltzed back to his room, leaving Mike alone with his thoughts.

This was one curve he did not expect to be thrown at him. Sure, Briggs was a walking surprise, but his sister? And not just his sister, his watching-every-move-that-you-make little sister. Then, a thought dawned on him, that caused him to audibly gasp. What if she finds out about his investigation on Briggs? Would she tell her brother? Would she try and stop Mike? Would she do anything at all? Mike sighed heavily and ran his hands through his thick blonde hair. What was he supposed to do now?

Mike reached into his pocket and produced his phone. He dialed a number, lifting the phone to his ear.

It rang twice, before a female voice answered the phone. “Hello?”

“Yeah, it's Agent Mike Warren speaking.” He spoke. “Can I talk to Juan?”

>>>

“His sister?” Juan gasped as he and Mike sat in a small coffee shop. They had agreed to meet in a neighboring town, in order to avoid accidentally running into any of the other agents in Graceland. Juan was the head officer of Mike's investigation on Briggs, who was posing as his psychologist for anyone on the outside. He was the guy to talk to when Mike was in a jam or needed advice. “Well, that's something that could get them both in trouble for sure.” He said. “Graceland is supposed to be a very secretive operation. Many people at the federal building here don’t even know it exists. And to think that she can bypass the security clearances…”

“Yeah, but if we go in there and arrest them, or even confront them, they'll know someone tipped the Bureau off.” Mike reasoned. “What am I supposed to do?”

Juan considered this. “And you say that she's able to find anything through the computer?”

“I am convinced that she can literally find a needle in the virtual haystack.” Mike sighed. “If she finds out that I’m investigating her brother…” He didn’t need to finish the sentence. They both knew it would mean trouble.

His fake psychologist nodded. “Well, I suppose there's only one thing to do. Play it out.”

“What?” Mike nearly did a spit-take with his coffee.

“You said it yourself, if the Bureau gets involved, then it will blow our cover.”

“But if we just leave it be, then she'll eventually find out, which runs the risk of Briggs finding out.”

“We don't have much of a choice, now do we?” Juan argued. “Look, the best thing that we can do right now is to just ride it out. His sister may or may not find out. Majority of this case is hard-copy based anyway. Your job is just to take it as it comes. Don’t do anything that will make her suspect anything. If it all goes south, then we'll have no choice, but to convene.”

Mike sighed heavily, leaning back in his chair. He knew that Juan was right, but it just didn't seem good enough, especially when it comes to Briggs. He started to chuckle. “Why do I get the feeling that this is going to end badly?”

Juan shook his head. “No, it won’t if you do your job.” Then an idea struck him. “Maybe we can use this to our advantage.”

“How so?”

“Well, if Paul Briggs is stealing or using drugs from the Bureau, maybe his sister knows something.”

Mike made a face as he considered the possibility. “I don’t know. I think that might be a bit of a stretch.”

His commanding officer sipped on his coffee in thought. “You’d think that he wouldn’t confide in his family about something like this?”

“Okay, but this is still Paul Briggs we’re talking about. By Jenny’s own admission, he doesn’t keep in close contact with her in general. I doubt that he’s going to her for therapy.”

Juan leaned forward and lowered his voice. “She knows something. If she keeps as close of tabs on him as she says, she’ll know something. Maybe not everything, but she may know something that could help us get a leg up on this. You need to get in on her good side.”

Again, Mike nearly choked on his coffee. “Are you saying I should seduce her?”

“No, no. Not necessary. You just need to convince her that you are a concerned friend. Lower her guard just enough to find out what she knows.” Mike ran a hand through his hair as the situation weighed on him. It seemed like the further into this investigation he got, the more overwhelming it was becoming. “You were recruited from Quantico for a reason, Agent Warren.” Juan assured him. “Time to put this to good use.”

The meeting ended shortly after that, and Mike took the bus back. While on the bus, he placed his ear buds in his ears and started playing some of the Spanish lessons that he was required to learn. He was a quick learner, but he was still very rusty. While he listened intently to the many phrases and tenses of Spanish, he couldn't help, but think of his next move. Jenny probably wouldn't dig into his past unless he gave her a reason to. Probably. He had to be cool, like what he and Juan had agreed on. If he did or said anything out of the ordinary, it would tip her off. But how could he approach the subject naturally? It wasn’t like he could waltz up to her and ask why her brother may or may not be a junkie.

He glanced down at his watch, seeing that it was 10:30 in the morning. Well, at least, he could go home to a mostly empty house. Most everyone would be busy working on their own investigations, or, in Johnny's case, out surfing. He got off the bus and walked along the beach. It was necessarily the fastest way, but it was his favorite route, as it was the most beautiful. Plus, it could give him some time to think and strategize.

Finally, Mike made it to Graceland, and climbed his way up the stairs. “ _Es muy bonito por fuera_ ,” Mike said out loud, as he made his way to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water.

“ _De hecho, es. Pero entonces, ¿qué se puede esperar de California_?” A voice answered in the living room area, and nearly making Mike inhale his water. He looked and saw that Jenny was lying on the couch across the room from him, lazily glazing over a gossip magazine.

“Oh, hey, Jenny,” Mike exhaled, a small, yet nervous smile forming over his lips. “Sorry, you scared me.”

“Yeah, I tend to have that effect on people,” She nodded, placing the magazine on the coffee table next to her and sitting up. Then, she looked him square in the eye. Mike swallowed back a yelp. “So, what are you doing here, Mikey?”

He paused, not quite sure what she meant. “Uh, well, I was getting a drink a water….” He answered, knitting his eyebrows together.

“No,” She cut him off. Her icy hazel eyes chilled his grey-blue ones to the very core. “I mean what are you doing _here_? At Graceland?”


	3. Question

Mike felt like screaming, and running, but his body would not move. _Goodbye, Graceland._ He thought. “I'm not sure what you mean?” He said, trying to play it off.

Jenny regarded the handsome man before her. She detected a hint of panic when she confronted him, but it was gone in a blink of an eye, figuratively and literally. “I think you do,” She said quietly. With a sigh, she stood up and began to pace a bit. “See, I was doing some digging, Agent Warren. Read up on your file. Very impressive, by the way. 1700 on your practicals, nearly passing Paulie’s scores.” Mike felt himself shrink, the more she spoke. “A bit more digging and then I see that you put in a request to go to D.C., and instead, you're here. Now, I don't know how everything works at the top of the food chain, but if a 1700 requested to be placed somewhere, then I would see to it that he got what he wanted. Clearly, he’s smart enough, why not? But then, they do the exact opposite and send you as far away from DC as possible, without being in Hawaii. To me, that says that they need to put that 1700 score to use.”

Jenny took a breath and glanced at Mike. He was completely frozen, his chiseled features trying to remain stoic. There was no doubt that he was hiding something, and Jenny couldn't help, but investigate. “From what I know, minus the thing with Lauren a few days ago, Graceland isn't struggling, by any means. Everyone here does a bang-up job and continues to do it constantly. There is no need for a man of your skills. So why did they need you to come here?” When she finished, she stood within two feet of Mike, staring up at the 6-foot agent. “What are you really here for, Mike?”

Mike's mind was racing with many different things to say, and before he even knew what he was saying, he opened his mouth. “You tell me. I'm just as confused as you are. I never asked to be sent here, but I didn’t get much of a say in the matter.”

Her eyebrows twitched. “So, you're saying that you have no idea why you are here?” She asked, never breaking eye-contact. “They didn’t tell you anything?”

What was with this chick and always staring him down? “Well, they said that they needed to work some things out, before I officially got settled. They thought I could be useful while I'm here, and that's the last I heard. You know how those Bureau guys can be.”

Jenny regarded him carefully. He seemed honest enough, or maybe she was just distracted by his beautiful blue eyes. She felt like she was staring into the sun. If she looked at them long enough, she would go blind, but they were almost too beautiful not to. “I don’t like liars, Mike. Are you lying to me?”

“Why would I lie to you? I don’t know you.”

“Exactly, all the more reason to lie.”

She was not backing down. _Keep cool, Mike. Remember your orders_. “Well, hey, you’re such a computer expert. Did you find anything that could offer some explanation as to why I’m here?”

“Not that I could find. Yet.” She hadn’t blinked the entire conversation; her stare was very intense.

“Well, if you do find out, you’ll let me know?” He offered weakly. He held up his hands in surrender. “I really don’t know anything.” Daring himself to stare right back at her.

Another long moment of silence. He was sure she could hear his racing heartbeat. But he fought hard to be as stoic as possible. “Alright,” She conceded. “For some weird-ass reason, I believe you.”

Mike wanted to breath out a sigh of relief but felt that it would probably be too suspicious. Instead, he flashed her a cool smile. “Really?”

“Yeah, well, I tried to scour the FBI files for some explanation myself but couldn’t find anything. So I guess I can let you off the hook. For now.” She went into the kitchen to pour herself a glass of lemonade.

With her back turned to him, he let out the breath he had been holding, realizing how narrowly he avoided that bullet. “Where’s the rest of the house?” Mike asked conversationally, hoping to change the subject quickly.

“Jakes is chasing some lead on his bird investigation, Charlie and Johnny had an eval down at HQ, Paul had some sort of meet-up and Paige is off setting up some sort of meet with a CI. So… it’s just you and me, pretty boy.” She flashed him another wink as she poured lemonade into a glass.

He tried not to blush. Why was he making her feel like an awkward teen? “You know, I don’t think I’m comfortable doing anything…” He stammered. “You know, Paul…”

Jenny rolled her eyes. “Oh, relax, Mike. I’m just having fun. Don’t they know how to have fun in Quantico?”

“Not that kind of fun.”

“You’re just an easy target, alright? Maybe it's the devilishly handsome features, or those puppy dog eyes.” She said, taking a sip from her glass. “Look, I'm sorry if I come across as... you know, abrasive. I suppose I'm just always looking out for my brother.”

“I don't blame you. I'd probably do the same thing if I was in your shoes.” He sunk into one of the chairs surrounding the small island in the kitchen, sipping his water nonchalantly.

Jenny smiled her super model smile. “So, it's my understanding that it's your day off.” She remarked, raising her eyebrows, as if to convey a secret message.

“Um, yeah...” He could see where this was going.

“What do you say we spend a little time getting to know each other?” She asked, sweetly. “Not a date, but I feel like if we spent some time together, maybe we can bypass the whole suspicious stage.”

Mike was about to turn her down, when a thought crossed his mind. Maybe if he were to get to know her, she wouldn't keep accusing him of things. After all, sometimes it was best to make good friends with potential threats. “Okay,” He agreed. “But this is not a date, got it?”

She flashed him a mischievous smile. “Don't worry, sweet cheeks.” She winked. “I'll try and behave.”

He tried to hide a blush and stood up. “Let me just change into cleaner clothes.” After her nodding in permission, he vanished down the hall and up the stairs.

Jenny stared after him, admiring how good his ass looked in the jeans he wore. She chuckled darkly. Maybe she should just take him out swimming.

Mike and Jenny spent most of the rest of the morning and the afternoon together. Jenny did manage to convince him to go swimming in the ocean, but after he realized that she only did it to see him without a shirt, he quickly decided to suggest renting bikes. She agreed to, and a mere bike ride turned into an intense race. Jenny won, but Mike would claim that he let her win.

As they spent more time together, Mike felt his defenses go down bit by bit. Sure, Jenny was a bit intense, but underneath her tough exterior, she was a fun person. She was a lot like Briggs that way, except Briggs had tougher walls. He really enjoyed their time, even though she flirted with him every chance she got, making him blush. Jenny also felt her defenses go down. Sure, he was still a little bit of an up-tight D.C. drone, but once he opened up, he was actually just as goofy and sarcastic as her.

They eventually made their way back to Graceland, joking and laughing the whole way. “You’ll have to teach me how to surf sometime.” Jenny insisted as they stumbled into the government-owned house.

“Well, once I learn how to stay on the board, I'll let you know.” Mike told her. It was true. Johnny and Briggs had made it their goal to make Mike a surfer and spent all the spare time they had on making it happen. But with Mike being an East Coast guy, surfing didn't necessarily come naturally.

Just then, Briggs rounded the corner, arms folded, and he stepped right in front of them. By the look on his face, he wasn't too happy. “Did you two have fun today?” He asked coldly.

The stupid grins that were on Jenny's and Mike's face quickly evaporated as Briggs' brown eyes stared them down. “As a matter of fact, we did,” Jenny answered, placing her hands on her hips. “Is there a problem?”

Briggs regarded his sister very carefully, as one would watch a time bomb without a visible clock. “Mike, can I have a moment alone with my sister?” He asked, not breaking eye-contact.

All of sudden, Mike felt like the elephant in the room. He looked over to Jenny, who nodded, as if to say that things were okay. Then, he silently went to his room.

Once she was sure Mike was gone, Jenny spoke up. “What the hell are you doing?”

“What the hell are _you_ doing?” Briggs countered.

“I asked you first.” She spat back almost child-like.

“Jenny, you told me you were here on official business. Few days in, then you're gone, I think were your exact words.”

“And? It's only been a day.”

“So, I'm not sure what 'official business' means to you, but to me, it means that you would be working on a case or something. Not frolicking in the meadows with the new guy.”

“'Official business' means 'my business', Paul.” Jenny walked past him to sit on one of the sofas in the living room. “And I don’t have to ask permission to hang out with a boy. You're not dad.”

“No, and you're not thirteen years old anymore, Jenn,” He snapped, following after her. “Why are you here? I mean, truthfully.” He had not uncrossed his arms the whole time. Jenny could see the blood vessels thicken as the seconds ticked by.

“I don't need to explain myself to you. I told you, that I would be gone in a few days, and that is a guarantee.”

“But why are you here in the first place? What's this official business?”

“Don't worry about it.”

“I am actually going to worry about it when you're hanging around my rookie.”

“It was his day off!”

“That doesn't change the fact that you told me you had work to do!”

“Paul, will you just chill out? I'm not here to assassinate you, if that's what you're worried about.”

“Why won't you tell me why you are here? Just tell me.”

Jenny smiled bitterly and shook her head. “You wouldn't understand.”

“Try me.”

“I don't have to...”

“Just tell me!”

“To check on you! Alright?” Jenny finally snapped. Briggs closed his mouth, as Jenny ran a hand through her hair. “Truth is, I was worried, because I hadn't heard from you in a while, and you never answer my calls or texts.” She said in a much quieter tone. “So, I just thought I would spend the weekend here, to check up on you and to keep an eye on you.”

Briggs uncrossed his arms and looped his thumbs in the belt loops of his jeans. He sighed heavily, looking down at the ground. “I don't need you to check up on me...”

“Oh, don't start that again!” She cut him off, rolling her eyes.

“You're my _little_ sister. I'm the one who should be checking up on you.”

“Yeah, but you don't. Paul, you haven't 'checked up on me' in... a very long time.” Jenny started to stand up, her hazel eyes ablaze with the fierceness of a tiger. “You don't call. You don't visit. You don't even send me a freakin' text message. The only way for me to see how you're doing is through a lousy computer, after getting past a bunch of firewalls and blocks and federal tags. I'm your _sister_. I don't deserve to be shut out like the rest of your friends.”

“You're not shut out.” He said.

“No, you don't speak.” She commanded pointing her finger centimeters away from his chest. “Ever since... the Estate…”

Briggs shook his head and started to walk away. “No, don't talk about that.”

“And why not, Paul?” She challenged. “Because you don't want to remember, or you don't want anyone else to know?” He stopped in his tracks but refused to turn around and face her. “Why are you so hell-bent on keeping it a secret? The guys in this house are your friends. They care about you and look up to you. Hell, that Mike kid holds you on a frickin' pedestal. You can't hide from it forever, you know. They deserve to know what happened. I’m pretty sure that of all the people in the world, these guys will understand. You can’t keep carrying that whole mess on your shoulders. Honestly, I’m worried that… keeping it all in… it’s going to kill you.”

A silence fell over the two of them. Of course, Jenny had plenty more to say, but it was his turn to do the talking. He remained with his back to her, until he slowly turned to face her. He stared into her eyes, thinking how much they looked like their mother's, and how he used to look into those eyes and see nothing but sweet innocence. There was a time when he would tell her everything, and vice versa. He still cared for her, and loved her, but he had grown up now. His problems were a bit more complicated than way back when. Although, every ounce of him wanted to tell her, to have his old sister back, he couldn't bring the words to his mouth.

“Well,” He said, breaking the silence. “You got what you came for. I'm fine, as you can see. So, I would appreciate it if you were gone by morning.”

And with that, he walked off, neither one of them saying a word.

>>>

When he knew it was safe, Mike emerged from his room. The living room was empty, and nothing appeared to be broken. There was no sign of either Briggs or Jenny. He hadn't heard much from their fight, mostly because he was afraid if he did, Jenny would kill him. But he could make out the intensity of their voices. Suddenly, Mike was worried for Jenny.

As he looked out the massive window facing the beach, Mike saw Jenny sitting down by the massive boulders on the shore. He also noticed that she was playing with the shaggy dog that he had met the first day he arrived.

Jenny giggled, rubbing her nose against the dog's wet nose. “You are a silly boy,” She squealed, as he tried to chew on her flip flops.

“Careful,” Mike said behind her, as she turned to face him. “If he gets a hold of your shoes, he will not give them back.”

Jenny smiled and threw a stick for the dog. He ran after it, his floppy brown ears hitting his face as he went. Mike sat down next to Jenny, and they were silent for a few minutes, watching the waves roll up on the shore, the water getting teasingly close to them.

“So, you doing alright?” Mike finally asked glancing over at her.

She didn't bring her eyes to his, afraid she would open up her soul to him. Instead, she fixated her eyes on the ocean in front of them. “Yeah, I guess.” She sighed, her lips in a tight line.

Mike wished he was better at talking with people. He could talk his way out of being shot in the head, sure, but when there is something about talking to people after a big fight that made him feel utterly useless. “Listen,” He started slowly. “I'm sorry... if I caused any...”

“Mike,” She said, smiling weakly. “That back there had nothing to do with you, alright?”

“Well, I can’t help, but feel somewhat responsible.”

“Well, don’t. You did not cause anything.” She insisted, glancing at him. “Paulie’s always been a little bit difficult. Plus, I don’t know if you know this, but siblings tend to fight a lot.”

They fell silent again. “Do you want to talk about it?” He asked, tired of the silence.

Jenny took a deep breath in through her nose and let it out through her mouth. She could tell him what happened, but that would just lead to tears and ugly things. “Not really.” She answered, looking down at her feet.

Mike nodded, feeling disappointed, but still he understood. Then, he placed his hands on his knees and stood up. “Well,” He said, holding out his hand for her. “Let's say we get you that drink you wanted.”

She glanced up at him. “Mike, _I_ was going to buy you a drink, you know.”

“But right now, you're the one that needs it the most.” He insisted, wiggling his fingers, and flashing her a dashing smile. “Come on.”

Jenny rolled her eyes. “Damn puppy eyes.” She grunted, begrudgingly taking his hand.

Mike helped her to her feet, and they wandered down to the Drop, trying to forget what had happened earlier.


	4. Close

Johnny and Briggs sat in the living room, channel surfing when Charlie walked in.

“Ok, I need fresh eyes.” She announced with a huff, dropping to the couch next to Johnny. Briggs turned off the TV and waved at Charlie to continue.

“What's going on, girl?” Johnny asked, seeing the file in Charlie's hand.

“K, so I've been working with this guy, Harper, a stupid drunk-ass drug dealer...”

“Wait, he's got a drunk ass? How does that even work?” Johnny asked teasingly, earning a slap from both Charlie and Briggs.

“Anyway,” Charlie continued. “I want to bust him tonight, but this guy is smarter than what he looks.”

“What do you mean?” Briggs asked, holding out his hand so that she could hand him the file.

She handed it over to him and continued to explain. “See for yourself. He is never spotted alone. If he sees or figures out that he's being hunted, he uses the other person as a shield or bait. Or he disappears into a crowd of civilians. He's impossible to bust.”

“Sounds like you need to become his other person.” Briggs suggested.

“Yeah, but by tonight? It's going to take me a while to earn his trust enough to be alone with him.” Charlie rubbed her forehead with her hand in frustration.

“But you said you were working with him, right?” Johnny said. “Doesn't that mean that he sorta trusts you?”

“Yeah, but to be his plus one?”

“You're saying that he never expressed interest?” Briggs asked.

“Well, yeah, but...”

“There's your answer.” Briggs shrugged, and placed the file on the coffee table. “Offer him a one-night package deal. Except, instead of ending it with orgasms, end it with handcuffs.”

“Kinky.” Johnny commented almost to himself.

“But he'll make me take off any jewelry right from the start of the night. So, a necklace mic, or a watch transmitter will be useless.”

Briggs considered this. “Sounds like we need to go old fashioned. We go by visuals.” He got his phone out of his pocket, and texted Mike. _Come back to the house in twenty minutes. Important._

He had a plan. Little did he know that Mike was with Jenny, and that Jenny would be an important part of that night's bust.

>>>

Mike and Jenny sat at the bar, pretending to make conversation, when Charlie walked in.

It had not been easy getting Briggs to let Jenny in on the bust. It involved many arguments, and many compromises, but eventually, she convinced him to get on the action.

Charlie glanced around the bar, her eyes lingered on Jenny's, giving her a very subtle nod. Then, she saw Harper sitting at one of the tables in the back and made her way to him.

Jenny smiled as she saw that Charlie went with the dress that she picked out for her. She wore a light red sleeveless dress, the neckline swooped down to just above her cleavage. Black buttons trailed down to her waist. She looked amazing for her fake date.

“I got eyes on Charlie Brown.” Jenny spoke into her bracelet, in the most natural way possible.

“Really?” Mike asked, taking a sip of his beer.

“What?” She shrugged innocently. “Don't you use secret code names?”

“Yeah, but with a little more thought behind it.” He said, turning in the stool to face her. “Is she with him now?”

Jenny looked over his shoulder. She saw that Charlie was just sitting down with Harper, a shady looking grease monkey. Charlie sat facing Jenny, and Harper had his back to her, giving her an up close and personal look at his slicked back hair, like he was in a bad 80's movie. “Yeah, she's about five tables behind you.” Jenny confirmed. “You didn't tell me that her boyfriend was a real sleaze ball.”

“How can you tell he's a sleaze?”

She nodded over in his direction. “Without making it too obvious, see for yourself.”

Mike turned in his stool, taking a big sip of his beer, while simultaneously glancing over at Charlie's table. Jenny was right. By the obvious amount of gel that the man put in his hair, it was a wonder that he ever got a girl to even talk to him. He set the beer down, exhaling dramatically.

“Easy there, tiger.” Jenny warned with a smile.

“You're right, though.” Mike smiled back. “That guy is the definition of sleaze.”

“So tell me, Mike.” She said, conversationally. “What are your moves?”

“My moves?”

“Well, if we are playing a couple, I want to feel like one. So, let’s pretend I’m some big-breasted, blonde bimbo,” She sat taller and flipped her hair, while raising her voice. “I’m so glad you finally asked me out, Mike.” For extra measure, she fluttered her eyes at him, unable to suppress a smile.

Mike laughed. “You really think I go for bimbos?”

“I assume that’s the kind of woman you attract with your boyish charm.” She shrugged. “But seriously, what’s your big move?”

“I don’t have any moves.” He stated nonchalantly. “And we are here for Charlie, remember?”

Jenny watched Charlie and Harper closely. The two of them seemed to be behaving as if they were constructing a business deal. Charlie didn't play with her hair flirtatiously. Harper didn't try to touch her arm. They hardly even cracked a smile. For some reason, Charlie seemed to be more nervous than anything, for she kept glancing at Jenny. Something was up, but Jenny didn't know what. “I’ve got eyes on her. She seems to be uncomfortable, but not in danger. Now, what are your moves? Every guy has a move.”

He let out a breath and rolled his eyes. “I don’t know, I guess I would buy them a drink.”

“Wow, Casanova, what a move.” She joked sarcastically.

“That’s not all I do.” He defended himself. “But I guess I more cater my moves to the girl I’m with. I don’t really have a playbook.”

Suddenly, as if he was fed up with Charlie's far off glances, Harper started to turn to see who she was looking at.

Jenny straightened up and thought quickly. “Mike?” She said swiftly. “Touch my leg.”

Mike nearly choked on his beer. “Excuse me?”

“Trust me. Touch my leg.”

Hesitantly, he brushed his fingers on Jenny's knee gently. Jenny smiled brightly. “Good,” Jenny complimented, glancing back towards Harper, who was now looking nearly in their direction. They needed something more. “Now, I'm going to laugh as if you said something really funny.” Without hesitation, she threw her head back and giggled probably the most girly giggle in the history of giggles. Mike really hoped this was for the investigation. But as annoying as her fake laugh was, he had to admit it was kind of contagious, for he found himself grinning a dopey grin.

Jenny dialed down her laughter, as she looked over to Harper, finding that he had turned back around. Instantly, she cleared her throat and dropped the act. “Thank you.” She sighed, taking a swig of her cocktail.

“I sincerely hope that was a cover.”

“What? That laugh?” Mike nodded. Jenny waved her hand. “Please, I've been around guys enough to know a turn-off or two.”

“So, is that your way of telling me to leave?” Mike joked.

She looked over at the odd couple, and saw Harper signaling the waitress for the check. “Not without me.” She winked, downing the last of her drink. “Pay the tab. We're taking a walk.” She explained the situation into her bracelet transmitter for whoever was listening, as Mike laid a twenty down on the bar.

As he turned, he felt Jenny's hand slip in his. He looked down at their entwined hands and then at her. “Lead the way.” She winked.

Mike tried to hide the fresh coat of pink seeping into his cheeks and did as he was told. The two of them moved out to the sidewalk, where Jenny pulled Mike's arm over her shoulder.

“You know,” He grinned as they continued to walk in the night. “You play the part of 'girlfriend' incredibly well.”

“Well, did you think you're my first?” Jenny snorted.

“What about your moves, then?” He asked. “Do you have any plays in your book of seduction?”

“Oh, Agent Warren,” She smiled slyly. “You couldn’t handle my plays.” They passed by a dark alleyway, and Jenny pulled them down it. “Now, we'll just have to wait until Charlie leaves the bar.” She said, peering around the corner and eying the entrance to the bar.

Mike also sneaked a look and produced his gun.

As he cocked it, Jenny's eyes widened. “What are you doing? Put that away!” She whispered incredulously.

“What?” Mike shrugged.

“If any civilian sees that, they'll call the cops.” She explained, while pushing the gun down. “That is the last thing we need right now.”

“What about making the bust?” He protested, as she swiped the gun from his hand and placed it in his jacket pocket.

She peeked around the corner again, making sure they didn't miss them. “Just wait until the signal before you start waving your gun around, Rambo.” Then she signaled for him to come and take a look.

They peered around the corner and saw that Charlie and Harper were leaving the bar, making their way towards them. Jenny felt panic rise. The plan was to follow them, not to have them walk by. They were getting close enough for her to hear their conversation.

“Trust me, Charlie.” She heard him say, as she and Mike exchanged expressions. “I'll get you your stash soon enough.”

“When? Where are we going?” Charlie asked.

“Don’t ask so many questions, doll face. All good things come to those who wait.”

Jenny ran a hand through her hair. There was no doubt that he would see them hiding in the alley. But there was nowhere for them to hide or run to. They needed to think of something and quick. Suddenly, a thought dawned on her. She grabbed Mike's head and turned towards her. “Trust me.” She whispered quickly, before smashing her lips onto his, pulling them so that her back was pressed against the wall. Mike was resilient at first, suffering from a bit of shock from the kiss, but soon realized what she was doing, and went along with it. Jenny slid her tongue into his mouth and opened one eye to see what the status was on the other two. They were just walking past; Harper glanced in their direction. Jenny deepened the kiss and ran her fingers through Mike's thick blonde hair, as he moaned appreciatively.

Charlie found it very hard not to chuckle as she glanced in their direction. “Atta boy,” Harper muttered, before pushing Charlie by the small of her back to continue their walk.

Once Jenny saw that they were out of view, she tore her face from his, and pushed him to the side to peek around the corner, as if nothing had happened.

Mike gathered his breath and tried to gather himself. “What was that?” He gasped, panting slightly, straightening himself out. In their make out session, Jenny had managed to unbutton a few buttons of his nice light blue shirt. Although, he didn't recall ever feeling them being unbuttoned...

“You’re welcome,” She replied quickly. “Now, shut up.” She grabbed a hold of his hand and pulled him along, so they could follow them.

They kept a good distance away until Harper stopped in a neighboring parking lot. Jenny and Mike ducked behind a parked minivan to listen in. Mike was still somewhat flustered from their extremely hot kiss from earlier, for he still was breathing heavily. Rolling her eyes, Jenny placed a hand over his mouth and put a finger to her lips.

“I don't have the money,” They heard Charlie explain. “But I think I know how I can pay you back.”

Harper chuckled darkly. “You think that you can pay for crack with sex?”

“Why not?” She insisted. “I've heard that other girls have got more for less.”

He paused for a minute, as if to consider it. “Just one night?”

“No. For the amount I want, it'll be worth what a few weeks of it.” Jenny felt a twinge of sympathy for her. Charlie usually detested girls who sold themselves for a quick high or whatever. And now here, she was doing exactly that. But then, she reminded herself that this was only a cover. She was sure that Charlie would go back to punching the boys in the arms as soon as she got home.

Mike dared to peek through the window of the minivan. He saw that Charlie stood inches from her partner's face; her arms hung around his neck. Harper looked like he was seriously considering it. Then he smiled creepily.

“Alright, babe.” He finally agreed. “You better be good, or I'll double the price.”

“I'll make it worth your while.”

He handed her a small bag of crystal drugs. “Let's seal the deal, shall we?” Then he leaned in, and placed a very ugly, sloppy kiss on her lips. Mike nodded down to Jenny, and they sprang into action.

Mike withdrew his weapon and pointed it directly at Harper, screaming for both of them to get on the ground. As he did that, Jenny spoke into her bracelet, signaling the others to charge forward. As Charlie and Harper held their hands up and knelt to the ground, Mike happened to glance over at Jenny and saw she was wielding a gun too. He was really confused because during their make out session, his hands had been all over her, but he didn't recall ever feeling a gun.

“Where the hell were you keeping that?” He asked.

Jenny smiled teasingly. “Some things are better left for the imagination, my dear apprentice.”

>>>

“Here's to Charlie,” Jakes announced as everyone raised their beer bottles. They had decided to celebrate at the Drop for yesterday's bust. “For slutting herself around in order to bust a guy's ass. Respect.”

Everyone clicked bottles, saying “Here, here”. Briggs looped his arm around Charlie, who was rolling her eyes at the rest of the group.

“You did good, Mama,” Jenny said as she nudged Charlie with her elbow. “Mama” was the nickname Jenny had given her upon their first meeting, aptly named because of her mother-like presence in the house. No one else was allowed to call Charlie that, just Jenny. “What is that you always say again?” She asked, smiling since she knew the answer.

Charlie chuckled, and said, “Bitches get shit done.”

“Damn straight, they do!” Jenny, Charlie, and Paige all clinked their glasses and cheered.

“Oh, but I think the award of the night goes to the lovebirds.” Johnny chuckled, gesturing to Mike and Jenny, as Mike turned bright red. “Sucking face to nab a dealer, now that’s commitment.”

“Come on, don’t act like you wouldn’t have done the same thing, you horn dog.” Jenny teased.

“I would pay big money to see you make out with Levi,” Paige giggled, slapping Johnny on the shoulder.

“Not happening,” Mike protested and standing up. “Anyone up for a round of pool?”

“Get ready to have your white ass beat, Levi,” Jakes challenged him, standing up and following him over to the pool table.

Johnny had already had a few beers and had been acting a bit crazier than usual. He had been hitting on every girl in the bar for the past hour, trying to convince the guys to go skinny dipping in the ocean, to no avail. Paige and Charlie, seeing an opportunity to make fun of him, followed close behind. Somehow, Briggs and Jenny got left alone at their table. They hadn't really talked since their fight earlier, and now felt rather awkward around each other.

“Well, I hate to admit this, but… you did great out there today, kiddo,” Briggs finally said, refusing to make eye contact.

Jenny glanced at him, trying to suppress a wide smile. “Yeah?” He nodded, playing with his beer bottle. “Well, I suppose I am pretty awesome.” She boasted, nudging him with her shoulder. He snickered and rolled his eyes. “But I had a great teacher.”

“If I recall, you were the one who taught me everything.”

“Oh, no, no, no. I only taught you mostly everything. You were the one to teach me how to sneak out of the house and lie to the 'rents.”

Briggs started to laugh at the memory. “Yeah, after you got caught sneaking out on mom's birthday, and you told her that you saw a mouse in your room.”

Jenny put a hand to her forehead in embarrassment, laughing. “Dad nearly destroyed the house looking for the nest.”

“Yeah. Remember when he broke mom's vase?”

They both erupted in laughter. “Oh, I was afraid that we were going to wake up with one less parent the next morning.”

The laughter soon subsided, and they simultaneously sipped from their beer. Briggs finally spoke, “Listen, Jenn. I'm sorry. You know, about earlier.” Jenny met his eyes in surprise. He had hardly ever apologized in his life, especially to her. But this time, she could tell he was being serious. “You were right. I haven't been... that good of a brother lately, and I'm sorry.”

Jenny smiled up at her big brother. “Thank you. And I'm sorry, too.”

“For what?” Briggs asked curiously.

“I know that you don't like to talk about what happened, and I shouldn't have tried to pry. I know that you’re trying to… cope. And I know that when you're ready, you'll talk about it more freely, and you'll tell your friends. But in your own time.” She reached out and touched his hand, and looked into his chocolate brown eyes, that looked exactly like his father's. “I guess I was just worried that you were starting to get depressed or something.”

He nodded, thinking as that was fair. “Well, please stop me if I ever do,” He ordered.

Jenny straightened up and gave him a goofy grin. “Permission to bash you on the head with a frying pan if necessary.”

“Ha, permission granted.” He saluted to her, making them both laugh.

“I love you, Paul.” Jenny said. “You know that, right?”

Briggs nodded. “And I love you, you little rascal.” He tucked her head under his arm, and gave her a noogie, much to her protests. “Well, come on.” He said loudly, as he released her. “This is a party after all. Another round, bartender!” The group all cheered and went on their merry way.

After about an hour, Jenny had joined Johnny in the drinking contest, and was soon plastered. Unfortunately, that meant that Jenny's advances towards Mike only grew stronger. He was probably the most sober out of the whole group, which wasn't that abnormal.

Towards the end of the night, Mike rounded up the gang to go back to the house, but Jenny and Johnny were the ones who were resilient to leave. So, Briggs literally carried Johnny out, while Mike was left to get Jenny to come with him.

“Ha, listen, Mr. Chinny-chin-chin,” She giggled, as she tapped his chin playfully. “I do what I want. And right now, I want another beer!”

“Jenny, you've had enough beers for tonight.” Mike said patiently.

“Don't... tell me what to do, blondie!”

Mike rolled his eyes. “Let’s just get you home.”

“Oo, getting sassy, now are we?” She then attempted to snap her fingers but had momentarily forgotten how to move her fingers.

Just then, the song “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” started playing, and Jenny squealed drunkenly. “Oh, my god, I love this song!” She slurred, as she started to dance and sing to it way off key. Mike scratched his neck and looked around the bar. Luckily, the bar was mostly empty, except for a couple that had been hitting on each other since they had arrived. And they were just leaving, but not before giving Jenny a weird look. “Come on, Mike Wazowski,” She waved to him to come closer. “Dance with me!”

“Now I know you're drunk, since you're comparing me to a one-eyed green monster.” He said.

“Well, you're both adorable,” She reasoned, wiggling her hips to the music. “And I bet you both dance really well.” Jenny got fed up with waiting and took him by the hands and twirled around him in a very uncoordinated way. Mike could do nothing but stand there awkwardly, as Jenny wiggled and writhed around him. “The phone rings in the middle of the night,” She wailed at the top of her lungs, earning strange looks from the bartender. “My father yells, what you gonna do with your life? Oh daddy dear, you know you're still number one. Cuz girls, they wanna have fun.” Jenny started spinning, and suddenly he thought of pulling a Briggs. He grabbed her by the waist and tossed her over his shoulder with a grunt and a squeal from the drunken girl.

“Sorry about her,” He called to the bartender before dragging her out of the bar.

“Is this just so you can look at my ass?” She flirted, while pounding her fists into his back. Luckily for Mike, in her drunken state, she wasn't too strong, so her fists didn't hurt at all. “Put me down! I am not a damsel in distress! I wanna walk!”

Mike ignored her the whole way to the house. Jenny continued to scream and protest, all of her flirting gone, since he was just being annoying.

When he finally set her down, she ran to the kitchen sink to hurl everything that was in her stomach. Mike stood next to her, holding her hair back, and trying to avoid looking at the mess she left in the sink. He glanced at the chore wheel on the wall across the room. He saw that it was Johnny's turn to do dishes next. Laughing silently to himself, Mike felt a twinge of sympathy for him, when he would wake up in the morning and see the inside of Jenny's stomach all over the dishes.

>>>

Mike's head pounded, as his shrill alarm sounded. He slammed the snooze button hard enough to break it. With the same hand, he rubbed his forehead and grimaced. Mike had not drunk that much last night, but it was enough for him to have one whopper of a headache.

It took him a while, before he realized that there was a warm spot on his chest. Looking down, he saw that Jenny was fast asleep on his chest, one of her arms was draped lazily over his stomach. A small puddle of drool formed on his t shirt. Much to his relief, he noticed that they were both still fully clothed in their outfits from the night before.

Jenny stirred lightly but did not open her eyes. Instead, she clung tighter to Mike as if he was a life raft. Mike started to remember how they had got this way.

After passing out at the kitchen sink, Mike had carried her to her room, only to find Charlie passed out on her bed. Not really sure if he dared to move her, he decided to bring her to his room, and give her his bed. But when he turned to leave to sleep on the couch, Jenny sleepily grabbed onto his arm. “I don't wanna be alone,” She whined, half asleep.

Since he was feeling rather tired, and her grip on his arm was rock solid, he gave in, and slid into the bed next to her.

Mike glanced at the clock, seeing that it was 6:05 am. He had to go on his morning run. But there was a sleeping girl on his chest. How was he supposed to explain this to her? No doubt that she would take it as an invitation or something that could happen regularly. 

Being as careful as possible, he was able to slip his arms under her, and carefully carried her bridal style. Jenny stirred a bit, but did not wake, and nestled into Mike's chest. Mike walked down the hall as quietly as possible, in order to avoid anyone seeing him carrying her, especially Briggs. He reached her room, and saw that Charlie had somehow moved, leaving the bed completely empty for Jenny. As if he was laying a baby down in her crib, Mike set Jenny down on her bed, and pulled the covers over her, making sure she was nice and comfy. If he was lucky, she wouldn't remember anything that happened last night, and thought that she spent the night in her own room, rather than Mike's.

Jenny did not seem to mind, as she snorted and snuggled into her pillows. Mike tiptoed out of her room and went to go prepare himself for his run.

When he returned, his gray t-shirt soaked with sweat, he found everyone in the kitchen, going about their business, everyone except Jenny. Jakes was in the middle of making pancakes, while Johnny was sluggishly slicing up fruit. Charlie and Paige were sitting at the table sipping orange juice and protein shakes. Briggs sat on the island chatting with Johnny and Jakes.

“Morning!” Mike greeted cheerfully. Everyone nodded and answered back. “Got much of a hangover, Johnny?” He teased.

Johhny gave him a bitchy look. “Man, if I wasn't in the middle of slicing these pomegranates, I would so give you the finger.”

“Play nice, you two,” Charlie scolded.

“And I see that perfect Mike has no hangover, as usual.” Johnny commented somewhat bitterly.

“That's because I didn't drink all of those beers.” Mike said, pouring himself a glass of orange juice that Charlie drank from.

“No one ever drinks as much as Johnny does,” Briggs added, slapping Johnny on the shoulder.

“Damn right, son.” He nodded his head. “I'm a drinking machine.”

“Not so sure that's a good thing, Johnny.” Paige said.

“It's not.” A voice mumbled in the hallway. They all turned to see Jenny leaning up against the wall. She looked awful. Her dirty brown hair was all awry. Dark circles formed under her eyes, which were squinting in the light. She had her hand rubbing her forehead, as she stumbled her way into the kitchen.

“Morning, sunshine,” Briggs cheered. Jenny flicked him off as she made her way to the coffee maker.

“Leave her alone, Paul,” Charlie said, as she rose to Jenny's side. “How you feeling, kiddo?”

“Like hell.” She grunted. “I just spent the last ten minutes by the toilet.”

“Well, you were pretty hammered last night.” Jakes told her, as he offered her a plate of pancakes. She shook her head but smiled to let him know that she appreciated it.

“Do you remember anything from last night?” Mike asked, genuinely curious.

Jenny made a face of concentration. “Not really. I remember talking to Paulie, but everything else is kind of a blur after that.”

“How did you get home?” Paige asked.

“That would be my doing.” Mike raised his hand. “I had to literally throw her over my shoulder in order to leave the bar. She was too busy dancing and singing.”

“Oh, god,” Jenny moaned. “Was it 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun'?”

“Yeah, how...”

“That's her trigger song.” Briggs explained. “It's her favorite song when she's drunk.”

Mike nodded. He guessed that made sense with the way she danced crazily. “I'm sorry, Mike,” Jenny apologized.

He waved it off, as he started to make his way back to his room to change out of his sweaty clothes. “I'm just glad you made it home alright.” Mike smiled.

“I owe you one, Mikey,” She called after him.

“Yeah, you do,” He called back without even glancing back.


	5. Daggers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where the story starts to meet up with the show's plot points. This chapter follows some of the events of Episode 7 (season 1). Things are starting to cook up for our friends...

The next day, most of the house was hanging out in the living room. Jakes had enlisted Jenny for her computer skills to look into a guy he was wanted to use as a CI. Paige was explaining to Mike how to tell if someone was using heroin or not, while Charlie watched with a beer in her hand. “You’re like a walking sponge, you know that?” She commented as she witnessed him “absorbing” all of the information Paige was presenting him.

“I mean, sure, the guy has previous affiliations with gangs,” Jenny was informing Jakes. She sat in one of the chairs, while he looked over her shoulder at the computer screen, intently staring at the guy’s mug shot. “As apparent by his many tough guy tattoos, but after a nasty little drive-by, leaving him with two holes in his chest, it seems like he’s out of it now. Not so much as a parking ticket since. I’m not sure how much help he’s going to be for ICE.”

“Who’s going to help ICE?” Johnny leapt into the room and looked over Jenny’s other shoulder.

“Johnny, what did I tell you about poking your nose into other people’s business?” Charlie chided.

“Sharing is caring, man,” He stuck his tongue out at her, then turned his focus back to the computer screen. “It’s a mean-looking dude. Who is he?”

“Your baby mama,” Jakes said sarcastically as he pushed him away. “It’s a new CI I’m working on.”

Mike, who couldn’t help but overhear, jumped in. “You are recruiting a new one?”

“Watch out, the sponge is hungry,” Charlie joked.

Jakes ignored her. “Nah, I’m just checking in on those drug smuggling robots.”

“Again, I’m not exactly sure he’s your in.” Jenny added, scrolling through other documents. “He seems too square now.”

“Yo, if it’s the docks, why not use Frank the Tank?” Johnny asked him.

“I can’t. He fell off a crate.”

“For real?”

“And he landed on a knife fourteen times.” Everyone gave a dark chuckle at that comment.

“Yikes,” Jenny shook her head.

“That’s one hell of a fall.” Charlie added.

“He had it comin’.” Jenny started to sing the “Cell Block Tango” from Chicago, as Paul walked into the room. Charlie rose to her feet while gently smacking Jenny on the leg. She pulled Briggs to talk with him privately, while Paige and Mike went back to Heroin 101, now catching the attention of Johnny, and Jenny pulled up the person of interest’s social media profiles. “If I scan over social media posts,” She clicked and pulled up various pictures of him posing with a pretty woman and young boy. “It looks like he’s settled down. Picket fence and everything.”

DJ swallowed thickly. “I don’t care about his personal life, Jenny. I care if I can use him to my advantage or not.”

“Look, Dale,” Jenny snapped back defensively. “I don’t know what to tell you. By all accounts, it looks like this is a classic case of reformed gangster. It looks like he’s been trying to clean up his act.”

“Pull up his financial records.” He pressed, not willing to give up on this guy. Under no circumstances was he going to let this guy go. Not with Daniel on the line…

“Dale,” She started. Based on his insistence, she knew there was something he was not telling her.

“I did not ask for your opinion, Jennifer. Now pull up his damn financial records.”

With a huff, she turned and started typing away at the keyboard at a furious pace. Within seconds, his credit card statements pulled up. “Looks like your guy frequents a local bar. And favors whiskey, specifically Higgins.” Jenny stated. “Why don’t you try that?”

“Thank you.” He placed a hand on her shoulder, as a semi-apology. “You really are a genius, you know that?”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, so you think a weak ass compliment like that is going to make up for the tone you were giving me?”

“Beat his ass, Jenny,” Johnny encouraged, earning a slap from Paige as a silent warning to keep out of it.

Jakes sighed, holding up his hands in surrender. “How about if I buy your next three rounds the next time we go to the Drop?”

“Make it five and you got a deal.” She stated, closing the laptop.

“Hey, everybody. There’s something I need to tell you all,” A voice caught everyone’s attention. All eyes in the room turned to see Charlie standing before them. Judging from her body language and the tone in her voice, everyone could sense the severity of what she was about to say. “I shot heroin a couple of days ago.”

There was a brief pause as the news sank in. Jenny pushed her laptop off her lap and rose to her feet. Paige also stood. “Are you serious?” She asked, as Jenny walked towards Charlie.

As Charlie nodded grimly, Jenny reached out and gently touched her arm. “You okay, Mama?” Of course, it was a shock to think of this strong kick-ass woman who usually abhorred the use of drugs as someone who shot up heroin.

“Yeah, it was in the moment on that Quinn case.” She explained, her eyes dancing around the room, not wanting to maintain eye contact with anyone. The shame in her was very present. “I screwed up.” She said towards Jenny.

“Look, Charlie,” Mike spoke. “If it was just this one time…”

“It was twice.” She admitted. “I had a bad reaction. I needed something to get me through my eval.” The eval referring to when she had to defend to the Bureau why she let this big-time dealer Odin Rossi slip through her fingers. It was hard to believe that she would have done something so crazy and reckless as being high in front of officials. Jenny could only look on her friend with sympathy.

“Why do some of y’all look less than surprised?” Dale asked, turning Jenny’s focus away from Charlie. She saw that Johnny’s gaze was fixed on the floor.

“Johnny?” She asked, lacing ice in her tone. Of all the people in the house, he would be the first one to spill secrets. 

“It wasn’t my place to say, man,” Johnny explained.

“Doesn’t matter.” Charlie insisted, placing a reassuring hand on Jenny’s shoulder. “All that matters is… I kept something from the house.” Jenny noticed the change in her tone. Now it was no longer shame, but almost a bitterness. Like there was something else being unsaid. Finally, Jenny allowed herself to hug her close. “You know that I’m always here for you, right?” She whispered into her hair.

“Yeah, I know, kiddo,” Charlie broke her embrace and offered a weak smile.

“Hey,” Mike’s voice came from behind Jenny. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” She nodded solemnly. “Better now.”

Jenny smiled slightly, trying not to let the worry consume her. “You sure?” She asked.

“Yeah,” Charlie nodded again.

“Can I ask you something?” Mike asked. A slight pause fell, Charlie silently allowing the question. “You got any more?”

“Mike,” Jenny slapped him in the stomach, as Charlie finally allowed a real smile to form over her face.

“I didn’t think chasing the dragon was your style, Levi,” She poked playfully at him.

“I just wanted to make sure you’re not tempted,” He stated. “Where’d you get it?”

The question was innocent enough, but it forced a new reality on Jenny. She watched Charlie’s face react to the question, too. “Just some junkie CI,” She shrugged off. But Jenny knew better. There was someone in the room who was conveniently not present. And if she knew anything in the world, it was that he somehow had something to do with this. “I don’t have anymore.” She heard Charlie’s voice crack. This time it was Mike’s turn to give her a hug. The rest of the housemates all took turns embracing her and offering their support, but Jenny was staring daggers over at the couch, at the back of Paul’s head.

>>>

Jenny knocked on Paul’s door later that evening. “Go away, Chuck,” his voice called from inside. She rolled her eyes and opened the door, finding him sitting on his bed with a few files strewn around him. “Not Chuck, then.”

“Hate to disappoint you,” She joked as she closed the door behind her, glancing into the hallway to make sure it was clear. As soon as it was closed, she leaned against it and crossed her arms across her chest. “Show me your arms, Paul.” Her tone sharp enough to cut through glass.

“What?” Paul looked up at her with a confused look.

“Show. Me. Your arms,” She repeated with emphasis.

“Jenny,” He started to say. But she was through playing games. She reached out and grabbed his arms, gripping them tightly. Turning them over and inspecting them closely, Paul sighed as he let her scan his arms. As she searched, she could find no marks, holes, or signs of scars. “You satisfied now?”

“Not even remotely,” Jenny threw back his arms roughly. She locked eyes with her brother. “How did Charlie get the H?”

Paul took in a deep breath and set the file in front of him off to the side. He lifted his knees up just enough for him to hug them, as a sort of comforting mechanism. “From one of my CI’s…” His gaze was aimed towards the floor.

“Don’t you lie to me, Paul.” She seethed, jabbing a finger in his direction. “You telling me a CI trusted you enough with their stash?”

“Last time I checked, Jenn, you weren’t my sponsor or my mother.” He countered.

“Tell me you’re not using again,” Jenny shook her head. She recalled getting a call from a weird phone number. Normally, she would have ignored a crazy unknown number, but something compelled her to answer it. When she discovered it was Paul, stranded in the middle of the Mexican desert, high out of his mind, her stomach had dropped. He was barely lucid enough to tell her where he was.

“You saw my arms, Jenny. Where else do you think I would be putting it?” Paul displayed his arms again to reiterate his point.

“I don’t understand. You were going to meetings,” She said incredulously. “I’ve tracked your cell phone enough to confirm that. You told me you were clean.”

“And I am clean.”

“Then isn’t it convenient that when Charlie goes under with you, she shoots up? And even crazier, _she_ thought it would be a good idea to shoot up again when she went into her eval. What a world of craziness.” Her voice was laced with icy sarcasm.

“Look, at Quinn’s place, the needle was in her arm before I could even blink,” He explained. “Knowing that I needed to get her to safe place, I happened to know a CI that was on a little vacay, so I stashed her there. When we found out she had the eval, she was already getting the shakes and was freaked out.”

“So you decided to shoot her up with some of yours, passing it off as someone else’s?”

Paul finally stood up, anger rising in him. “You think I want to repeat what happened to me? You know how bad of shape I was in. I would never do that to myself or you for that matter.”

“Then, how did she shoot up the second time?” She challenged, sensing his anger rising. One thing about the Briggs family was that they were not ones to back down from a fight.

Briggs tried to take in a deep breath. “The CI didn’t know that I knew where his secret stash was. Saw him pull it out when I was just returning from the bathroom. And when we found out that she had to go into the Bureau, I knew that they would be able to smell the withdrawals on her the moment she walked through the doors. So, I did what I had to do. It was not my heroin, Jenny.”

She searched his face, looking for any sign of dishonesty. But as usual, his face was unreadable. “I want to believe you, Paul.” Jenny said. “I do. But why didn’t you just come out and tell me?”

“I knew you wouldn’t understand.” He replied. “I knew that you would be freaking out like you are right now.”

“I’m freaking out, Paul, because you lied to me. And I’m worried that in order to satisfy your itch for a high, you’re forcing other people to shoot up.”

Paul’s eyes lit with anger. “Jenny, are you serious? You think I would do something like that? To Charlie? Do you really think that little of me?”

A small pause fell into the room before she asked, “Does she know about you?”

“No, and I plan to keep it that way.” He placed his hands on his hips. “Secrets are your own burden to bear, and she just burdened the rest of the house with it and I tried to talk her out of it…” Suddenly, Charlie’s bitterness when mentioning that she was keeping something from the house made sense. 

“Paul, you can’t shame her for wanting to confide in people she cares about.”

“Don’t you think we deal with enough?” Briggs argued. “Don’t you think that our entire job revolves around secrets and lies? It’s bad enough we have to deal with it out in the streets, but with each other?”

“Yeah, it’s called trust.” She countered. “Fine, I’ll believe you that it wasn’t your drugs, but I don’t want to hear that stupid shit about not being able to trust anyone in this house.”

“You think we really trust each other? You don’t think everyone in here has secrets?”

“Of course, we do. Who doesn’t? But when someone wants to unburden those secrets, that is their call to make. You might think of secrets as a burden, but they’re not. When you care about people, you don’t keep secrets from them. Period.” Paul shook his head and clenched his jaw. This was a clear sign that he was done with the conversation. “I’m going to let this whole Charlie thing go, for her sake. But as a warning. And don’t think I won’t be keeping an eagle eye on you from now on. I’ve already made arrangements to extend my stay here. Because I swear to God, Paul, if I find out that you are not keeping your end of the bargain, then I won’t keep mine.” She then turned on her heels and left the room in a huff. Leaving Paul Briggs to contemplate his next moves. What was he going to do with his sister?


	6. Lies

Mike laid on his bed, his brain playing through thousands of scenarios at once. He had just told Juan that he suspected Paul Briggs of using heroin. He was told it was going to be looked into, which meant his reason for staying at Graceland was dwindling down. If everything went smoothly, he could be back on the East Coast in a matter of weeks. But where did that leave him?

He looked down at his phone, Abby’s name staring back at him. Paige and Johnny had tried to convince him to call it off with her. It wasn’t like they were serious or anything, but he couldn’t shake the fact that she was something special. Plus, if he was going to go back East, she would go with him, and maybe they could find a way to make it work. But Paige had been right when she said that he had been lying to her. It was his job, for the safety of his job and everyone else’s in the house. Was that really the basis of a good relationship?

Finally, he couldn’t stand being alone with his thoughts anymore. Feeling like he could use a snack, he sauntered down to the kitchen. As he descended down the stairs, he heard Jenny’s voice. Something in her voice told him to stop mid-step. He lowered himself to peek down the steps, in an attempt to see where she was or who she was talking to. She was sitting at the kitchen island, a laptop in front of her, glasses sitting on her face. Her head was cocked to the side, as if her phone was smooshed in between her ear and shoulder.

“Well, you know me,” She was saying, as she typed away at her computer. “I like to make sure all my ducks are in a row.” Some silence passed, as she listened to whoever was on the other end. Then she said, “So nothing on Paul? You sure? No, no, I can always try Fred. Thanks anyway.” Why was she keeping tabs on her brother? What changes was she looking for? Was she suspecting Paul of using, too? Mike’s mind swirled with more questions as she hung up the phone and placed it next to her on the counter.

After letting a few seconds, he descended the stairs. “Hey, Jenny,” He greeted casually.

She stopped typing for a split second and jumped. “Oh, god, you scared me.” She laughed it off and went back to typing furiously. Hopefully, he didn't hear any of her phone conversation. 

“In the zone?” He asked, as he rummaged through the fridge.

“I guess,” She shrugged.

“What are you working on?”

“Well, I might have volunteered my services to help with your guys’ Odin Rossi thing,” She spoke, not looking up at him. “I’m scouring through the internet to see if I can make heads or tails of this supposed boogeyman.”

Mike’s ears perked up when she mentioned that name. “You finding anything?”

“Not a lot.” Finally, she pushed the laptop off to the side and lifted her glasses to rest on top of her head. “Most of the online chatter mirrors the street intel Charlie picked up on. No one can agree what this guy looks like, where he’s located. And surprise, surprise, but there is no one with the given name Odin Rossi in any records within a 50-mile radius.” She pinched her nose in frustration. “This guy truly is a ghost.”

His brain tried to formulate his next question very carefully. “Don’t you have some sort of contacts that you could get in touch with?” He asked, hoping that she would divulge in who her recent phone call was to.

“Dead end, as well,” Jenny shrugged. “But fear not, young padawan, I will use every once of my genius to help my big brother and I guess you, too.” She smiled, as he finally decided to munch on an apple. “You going to share?” She asked, nodding towards the apple.

He looked down at it. “I just took a bite.”

“Then cut around it, dumbass.” She rolled her eyes as she stood to fetch the knife. “Don’t worry, I won’t pass my cooties onto you.” Within seconds, she produced a knife and held it out to him. He took it from her and started slicing the apple. “So, you decide what to do about Abby yet?”

The question stalled his knife. He looked over at her incredulously. “How…?”

Jenny pushed herself to sit on the kitchen counter. “Paige told me. Well, actually, she pointed her out to me the last time you guys met up at the Drop. You didn’t tell me you had a girlfriend, Mikey.”

“That’s because she’s not my girlfriend.” For some reason, he was starting to feel shame about talking about this. “And no, to answer your question, I haven’t decided.” Mike turned his focus back to cutting up the apple.

“Oh, please, don’t be so boring,” Jenny sighed. “Paige tells me you guys have been on a few dates, that sounds like being a girlfriend to me. And she’s very pretty, so I don’t blame you for falling for her.”

“Well, you can spare me the lecture, alright?” He turned and handed her a few of the apple slices he cut up. “I know that I have to break up with her, for the good of the house.”

Jenny bit into the apple, watching him closely. “Okay… so what’s with the indecisiveness?”

He sighed and turned to lean against the island, studying an apple slice carefully. “Is it wrong for me to want some form of normalcy? I mean, with all the craziness we have to put up with on a daily basis, is it really so terrible if I want something… not crazy?”

She shrugged. “I guess not when you put it like that. But do you really think you could have something with this girl?”

“I don’t know.” He answered, chewing thoughtfully. “I guess… but does that mean that we can never have relationships here? I mean, am I doomed to be a bachelor for the rest of my career?”

Jenny bit the inside of her cheek. Of course, she could tell him about Paul and Lisa. Or Paul and Charlie for that brief instant. But if she told him that, then she would have to tell the whole story. That was something that she was not ready for. “Well, first of all, being a bachelor means that you can have meaningless sex with a bunch of people, so that’s a big plus. But also, you have been lying to this girl pretty much since the moment you met. Not to mention, you and I did make-out recently.” She raised a teasing eyebrow as she took another bite.

“That was for a cover.” He said, hiding his blush.

“Do you think that’s something Abby would understand?” She asked. “Look, even if she did know what you did, your job involves a lot of things that your average person can’t handle. Hanging out with gangbangers, lying, cheating, going behind people’s backs. And that’s on a good day.”

“It just sounds like we’re making the decision for her.”

“Because we are. Even if she was cool about everything, you came clean about all your transgressions and somehow, she wasn't bothered by any of it, then you would have to ask her to lie to her friends and family. She could never tell anyone anything about what you do or who you’re with. And soon as those lies that you seem so against are going to pile up. Is that what you really want?”

He nodded as he thought. She was making some excellent points, but unfortunately, it was not making his decision any easier. Needing to add some levity to the conversation, he forced a chuckle. “Are you just trying to get me all to yourself?”

Jenny rolled her eyes, trying to fight the urge to laugh, but failed. She hopped off the counter and grabbed a couple of apple slices. “You’re a big boy, Agent Warren. You can make your own decisions. I just hope you can make the right ones. And if you need me to play the role of girlfriend again, you know where to find me.” She scooped up her laptop and phone and skipped off to her room.

>>>

The next day, majority of the house found themselves out at the pier. Paul was set up to meet with Bello, one of the bigger gangsters in the area. Paul was supposed to be the “middle man” between Bello and Odin Rossi, who was also supposed to meet at the pier. Charlie was undercover as someone at the pier, so they could have some eyes on Paul. Mike, Johnny, and Jenny were squished into a small surveillance van, overseeing the operations through the many cameras. This meet was going to be important because they were hoping to finally put a face to the ghost man. Jenny had triple checked the watch transmitter Paul wore, Charlie’s mic, and all the cameras and equipment. Everything was set and ready to go to trap this elusive dealer.

Patiently, they all waited, though having three people shoved into a van in the dead of summer was not ideal. “Hey, Mike,” Johnny said. “I’ve been thinking about you and Abby.”

“Johnny, a time and a place,” Jenny slapped him on the shoulder, not taking her eyes off her monitor. On display was the rotating images of the pier, lots of people milling about their business, unaware of the danger they were potentially in. “Wait,” She leaned forward and clicked on a screen to enlarge it. “We got Bello.”

Sure enough, the Nigerian gangster was waltzing up to where Paul stood along the railing. The three of them leaned in close as Jenny fiddled with the volume of Paul’s watch. With all of the hustle and bustle of the pier, and the fact that they both spoke quietly, they strained to hear the conversation.

“Any sign of our friend?” They heard Bello ask.

“I think he’s just waiting to make sure we’re alone.” Paul responded.

“What do you think about Odin being fashionably late?” Mike wondered aloud.

Johnny gestured toward the screens in front of them. “If I’m him, I’m already there.”

“Makes sense,” Jenny nodded in agreement.

“So we could be looking right at him?” Mike asked.

“Or her.” Jenny pointed out. “We can’t rule anybody out.”

Johnny then pointed towards some of the people on the pier, trying to narrow down who he thought would fit the profile. “If it was me,” Mike supposed. “I’d put myself right in the corner of the pier. That way I don’t have to look behind me and I can see the entire area.”

Jenny clicked through the various angles of the cameras. “Well, I don’t see anyone in the corner, so…”

“Bring your daughter to work day?” Johnny pointed at a father and daughter on screen.

“What’s your bet?” The rest of them passed around their bets as to who they thought Odin could be. Charlie even got in on the fun, hearing the conversation through her earpiece and sending Mike a text as to who she suspected.

In the middle of their bet-laying however, Jenny noticed the sound on Paul’s transmitter. It was cutting in and out. She could still hear Paul’s voice, but it seemed like they were getting every other word. “Hold on, we got a problem,” Jenny started messing with the various settings and equipment in front of her, trying to correct it.

“What’s wrong with the signal?” Mike asked.

“His watch is cutting in and out,” Johnny explained out loud.

“Yeah, that shouldn’t be happening,” Jenny insisted. “I checked that watch myself.” She kept messing with the knobs, until she saw one of the sound bars die down completely. “And now he’s out.”

“What?” Johnny gasped.

“I’m not getting any transmission at all,” Jenny’s stress levels went way up as she tried every single thing she could think of to fix it. “It’s completely dead.”

“Well, fix it,” Mike commanded, not trying to hide his frustration.

“Yeah, what do you think I’m doing, Mike?” She gestured towards her frantic maneuvering of knobs and switches.

“Okay, Briggs is on the move.” Johnny announced, having not taken his eyes off Briggs and Bello. “Did he see Odin?”

“I got nothing,” Charlie’s voice came through loud and clear. Jenny’s mind raced. How was Charlie’s mic working better than Paul’s?

Jenny spoke into the mic that transmitted to her earpiece. “Okay, Mama, we’re going to need you to make an approach,” She explained, still messing with her equipment. “See if you can get ears on him.” Perhaps her mic could pic something up. Without working equipment, it would be kind of hard to bring this guy in if he shows up.

“God, I should be out there,” Mike muttered to himself, his knee bouncing up and down nervously.

“No, Bello told you not to come.” Johnny assured him. “If he sees you, it’s blown.”

“Charlie’s got this.” Jenny said optimistically.

“Jenny, do these cameras have audio with them?” Mike asked her.

“Are you kidding? With the ocean being right there and all these people, you’d be lucky if you heard anything but white noise.” She barked at him. “Besides, those cameras are only meant for visual surveillance, not audio.” 

“Where’d they go?” Charlie came in again. “Help me out.”

As Jenny kept fiddling with the computers and equipment, as Mike and Johnny directed her through the crowd. Paul and Bello kept weaving in and out of the large groups of people, Charlie struggled to keep up with them, let alone get close enough to hear what they were saying. “Why isn’t the goddamn watch working?” Mike demanded, letting his frustration get the better of him.

“Do you see me sitting on my thumbs, Mike?” Jenny spat back at him, making a grand show of all of her efforts.

“Bello’s gone,” Johnny said, pointing again at the screen.

“What? What happened?” Mike asked.

“We missed it.” Johnny hung his head in defeat.

Jenny sank back in her seat, smacking the table in front of her. “Dammit!” She cursed. Her mind raced. There was no reason that Paul’s watch should have cut out like that. She had checked it herself before giving to him, making sure the signal was good, all the wires were connected properly. It was practically a brand-new device. And of course, right when they are trying to nail down what Odin looks like, they fail again. Unless… An evil thought struck Jenny, as she looked up at the screen, seeing Paul walking off the pier. What if Paul sabotaged it?

>>>

Jenny was sitting on the couch, legs crossed, and laptop sitting in her lap. She was peering through her glasses down at the screen in front of her, while munching on some pretzels. She watched as the images of people’s faces flashed before her eyes, sometimes rap sheets shooting in front of her. There had to be something that they had missed.

“Hey, Jenn,” Mike greeted as he entered the house. “What are you doing?”

“Running facial recognition software on everyone who was at the pier yesterday.” She stated, looking up at him, a crazy look in her eyes. “Ask me how many people were there yesterday, Mike.”

“Uh…” He was unsure if she was really asking, but judging from the crazy look in her eyes, he felt like she didn’t want him to guess.

“400 and counting,” She answered for him, allowing him to see the frustration on her face. “And I mean, sure, you had a couple of low-level meth heads and one or two sex offenders, but besides your guy, Bello, no one seems to have a rap sheet that screams elusive criminal mastermind.”

“Well, not to make your day any worse,” Mike said, as he took a seat on the couch. “But I just spoke with Bello, and he told me that he made the deal with Odin.”

“You’re kidding,” Jenny’s face fell. Mike shook his head, telling her that he was pretty serious. “Jesus Christ,” She rubbed her hands over her face. “I’m beginning to think Odin Rossi is also the Invisible Man.”

“Yeah, I hear that.” Mike leaned back, sinking into the couch. “I just wish we had something to go off of. But we don’t even have enough for a profile.”

Jenny munched on another pretzel, thinking hard. Of course, she was not about to start throwing accusations against Paul, especially not to the new guy. She also didn’t have any proof, nor did she know exactly how Paul fit into the giant puzzle that is Odin Rossi. But if anyone could figure this puzzle out, it was the smart blonde guy on her left. “ _You_ don’t have a profile.” She mentioned casually.

That caught his attention. He turned his head to face her. “You do?”

“Well, actually it’s more of a theory than a profile,” She shrugged, placing the laptop off to her right. She turned her body towards him. “This guy is good, right? So good that he is able to worm his way out of being in the limelight. To me, that says he ain’t no freshman. I’m thinking he’s been busted a bunch of times, probably in relation to drugs, and… he probably has some inside knowledge.”

Mike sat up straight. “You think he’s a cop?”

“Not necessarily,” Jenny assured him, not wanting him to get too carried away. “But I do think he has some sort of knowledge of how the law works. Maybe that means he was once or currently is a cop, maybe that means he’s a repeat offender, maybe it means he’s got a mole. I don’t know; it could mean a lot of things. But nobody can do what he does without having some experience.”

He nodded as he listened. “You’re probably on to something.” He pondered aloud, letting his mind weigh all of the options. Then, he turned to her again and flashed a cool smile. “You _are_ good.”

“I know. It’s a blessing and a curse.” She smiled back at him and went back to her computer screen. “By the way, what’s the status on you and the girl?” She asked him, as he tried to slip away.

His feet stopped short at her question. Of course, he wasn’t going to tell her, or anyone else in the house, that he was still with Abby. Despite all of the conflicting advice he got from everyone, he still wanted to keep her around. But no one was going to understand that. And he was sure no one would be able to keep it a secret. “It’s done.” He answered. “I called it off.”

She lifted her head and gave him a sympathetic look. “I know that was probably hard for you. But it is for the best, you know.”

“I know.” He nodded and continued to make his way towards his room. It was funny. One of his first days in the house, Charlie had told him that there were no secrets in Graceland. Well, maybe he could be the exception.

Once he disappeared up the stairs, Jenny unlocked her phone to reveal a map of the city. A dot blinked in the middle of the screen. It wasn’t the first time she had tracked someone’s phone, let alone tracked Paul’s phone, and it certainly wasn’t going to be the last. But somehow, this time, it felt like an invasion of privacy. How could she suspect her own brother to be caught up in something like this? She wanted to believe that her gut feeling was just paranoia. That she was just crazy. Just because he tried to hide the whole heroin thing with Charlie didn’t mean that he was a criminal. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that somehow, her big brother was involved.


	7. Dance

Jenny was frustrated. She lived in front of the computer screen, but it was getting to the point where she was sick and tired of looking at a screen. Every avenue she had tried to explore to help nab down Odin was coming up short. There was nothing she could do at that moment that could confirm or negate her suspicions of her brother.

Bello had set up a system where Odin would drop a bag of drugs Mike would pick up. But of course, they had set it up in a locker room at some local gym, so unless they wanted to see old men with their saggy balls they couldn’t set up a camera to watch them. So Charlie, DJ, and Johnny were working on surveillance in the gym. Jenny had been in the phone room with Charlie, laughing at Dale who was struggling on an elliptical. But she quickly retreated to her room.

There was only thing that she could think that would help her at this time. She plugged in her iPod into speakers and scrolled through her music list to select a song. After some internal debate, she settled on the popular song by the Cars “You Might Think”. Once it started playing, she turned the volume of the speakers to the max setting. As the music started, she let her body sway a little bit, easing her way into the song. But it wasn’t long before she was dancing wildly and scream singing along to the song.

That is until she spun around to see Mike standing in her doorway, smiling widely. She yelped and went over to pause the music. “Jesus Christ, how long have you been standing there, you creeper?” She panted, slightly out of breath.

“Long enough to see your killer dance moves,” He joked, leaning against the doorway. “Do I dare ask?”

“This is my stress reliever,” She explained, refusing to feel shame. “Everyone’s got a thing that helps them through the day, right? Like you’ve got that squeezy hand thing, Paul has his meditation shit, and me? I turn up some music and dance like nobody’s watching.”

“Except I was watching,” He pointed out.

“Hey, don’t knock until you’ve tried it,” She argued. “Besides, it’s great exercise.” For the first time, she was able to look him over and noticed that he was wearing the same clothes as the day before. A wicked smile passed over her face. “And speaking of… Mikey Mike, are you doing the Walk of Shame this morning?”

The blonde man tried not to blush. “I don’t believe in that.” 

“Okay, well then you wearing the same clothes as yesterday and sporting the sex hairdo is just some coincidence?” She teased. “Who’s the lucky gal?”

He swallowed, determined to keep Abby a secret, who was the real person he had spent the night with. But he had told the whole house that he had ended things, so he couldn't disclose that. Instead, he said, “Just some girl.”

“You little slut,” She giggled. “Well, good for you getting back on the horse.”

Mike rolled his eyes. “Any sign of Odin?”

“Nope, Charlie’s in the phone room, if you wanna go see for yourself.” Jenny gestured down the hall. “That’s sort of the reason why I decided to do this.” She gestured toward her speaker system.

“Okay, well, do you think you could keep it down a little?” He asked.

“Look, Agent Warren, you have three options,” She held up three fingers as she spoke. “One, you could sit and watch the show. Two, you could join me. Or three, you can invest in some noise cancelling headphones.”

“Jenny, we are this close to…”

“Sorry, Mike, I can't hear you,” She smiled directly at him as she pressed play again. The song started blaring again. “Come on, Quantico. You know you want to.” As she started to dance again, she held out a hand for him to join her. Instead, he shook his head and closed the door behind him, letting Jenny have her moment of musical solitude.

>>>

“Thank you for meeting me,” Jenny smiled at her companion sitting across from her.

“Well, it’s been a while,” Fred Walsh nodded. They were sitting in a coffee shop, full of hustling business executives with bluetooths in their ear, hard-working baristas, and wannabe writers, typing away at their laptops. They were tucked into one of the corners by the window, Jenny nestled against the wall, thanks to the advice of Mike from the pier. Fred Walsh was a retired CIA agent, and had been someone that Jenny had worked with before. “And you said it was important.”

“It is,” She sighed, fiddling with the coffee cup in front of her. Her stomach was twisted from the betrayal. “I need to call in the favor you owe me.”

The grey-haired man leaned forward, sensing the gravity of the situation. “What do you need?”

“I need someone to look into my brother.” Her hazel eyes locked onto his. “Do you still have the resources to do this?”

“Paul?” There was no use in hiding his shock.

With a glance up at the ceiling, she set her jaw. “Fred, believe me, this isn’t easy for me. But I wouldn’t ask this of you if I didn’t think this was important.”

He stammered slightly. “I guess… what is this about?”

“I just…” She paused, feeling the words freeze in her mouth. But it was too late to change her mind now. “I need to know if Paul is involved with Odin Rossi.”

“The big-shot dealer? That Odin Rossi?” He asked, raising his eyebrows.

“No, the clown that eats children in Maine,” She spat sarcastically.

“Why can’t you look into him?”

“Because… I don’t want anything traced back to me. Plus, I need someone who’s impartial. Someone who isn’t going to let their own ambition or personal feelings get in the way.” She had considered looking into Paul, but if he found out that she was trying to nab him, then he would never forgive her. And if she asked anyone in the house about it, including Mike, they would probably get swept up in their feelings for him. Her brother was a real sweet-talker, after all. Still, the whole thing was leaving a bad taste in her mouth.

Fred Walsh studied her face, seeing the inner conflict she was dealing with. “Okay, Jenn.” He nodded. “But why me? I’m not in with the CIA anymore.”

The corner of her mouth lifted slightly. “I hear that you’re into freelancing now.” She said, giving him a knowing look. “Using some of your old contacts and surfing through some dark places…” This was referring to her knowledge of him using the dark web and some less than respectable members of society to carry out jobs.

He swallowed a lump in his throat. “I’m just trying to put bread on the table.”

“Yes, so I’m sure your sweet wife, Martha, would approve of all your methods, right?” She countered, knowing the full well that she would not.

The former CIA agent sighed and gave her a rueful smile. “Some things never change, huh?”

She smiled back and slid a blue USB drive towards him. “Everything you need to know is on this. Like I said, I don’t want anything to be tied back to me. You report your findings to me in person. No phone calls, no emails, no carrier pigeons. Nothing but word of mouth. Got it?”

Walsh hesitated for a moment, looking down at the USB in front of him. “And my payment?”

Jenny shrugged, anticipating that he would want to be paid for his troubles. “You’ll be compensated. But it all depends on the information you find. And assuming you are going to maintain complete anonymity, of course. No one else is going to help you with this; it’s purely a one-man operation.” Fred Walsh was still hesitating, so she decided to press further. “May I remind you of why you owe me a favor in the first place, Freddy? I would really hate for Martha to open up a certain anonymous email…”

“Deal, deal.” He insisted, swiping the drive off the table and placing it in his shirt pocket. “But can I just ask one more question?” She motioned for him to continue. “Why are you hiring someone to look into your brother? Why not just ask him directly?”

Jenny stared back at him. In some ways, she had asked him directly. No, she didn’t ask him if he was working for Odin Rossi. But she did ask him if he was on heroin, and from what she could tell he wasn’t. There was something he was hiding. She just wasn’t sure what. “I told you. I need someone impartial.” She took one more sip of her coffee before rising to leave. “I’ll expect to hear from you soon.”

“You might not like what I find,” He warned her.

She nodded slowly. “It doesn’t matter what I like, Fred. All that matters is the truth.” She then disarded her empty coffee cup and walked out of the coffee shop. In her wildest dreams, she never would have thought that she would have to do something like this. But then, one morning, she saw her brother sneak out of the house early in the morning. Wearing all dark clothing and covering his face as best he could. She had innocently used the bathroom, when she heard him come out of his room. Of course, she hid so he wouldn’t see her. But no one wears dark clothes and leaves early in the morning for an innocent reason. When she pinged his cell phone, she tracked it to some residential area and the same gym where Mike picked up the stuff Odin dropped. Paul could’ve been getting an early start to try and nab Odin. Or he could have stashed the secretive bags himself. But Jenny wouldn’t be able to tail him without him noticing. Maybe there was an innocent explanation for all of this. Maybe it was way more sinister than she thought. But she had to know for sure.

>>>

By the time Jenny returned back to Graceland, night had fallen. She had run into Charlie, who was just getting ready to turn in for the night. That’s when she told him about what had happened that day with Bello.

“Jesus, Mike did what?” Jenny gasped, as Charlie told her about how he had witnessed Bello cut off a guy’s hand. He then saved the same man by casting his stump in liquid lead. It was very brutal to think about, but even more brutal to think about how new everything still was to Mike.

“Your brother pushed him too far,” Charlie shook her head. “I tried to get him to pull Mikey out of there, but Briggs wanted to know what the guy knew. Something about Jangles.”

Jenny shook her head in disbelief. How could her brother be compliant with all of that? But she also knew that name “Jangles” all too well. Was it a coincidence that the handless man knew about him? Was that why Paul pushed Mike? “What a mess.” She commented aloud.

“Yeah, let me tell you, kid, if Paul gets Mike killed, I’m gonna beat his ass.”

“I’ll join you.” She said. “Where is Mike now?”

“Upstairs,” Charlie nodded towards the steps behind them. “He’s trying to claim that he’s fine, but I can see it in his eyes.”

“Sometimes, I wish we had easier jobs.” Jenny chuckled darkly, before wishing Charlie a good night. As Jenny made her way up the stairs and to her room, her mind was still racing with all sorts of questions. Why was Paul going pedal-to-the-metal lately? Why wasn’t he confiding in her? Is everything just a ploy to get revenge on the man who haunted her brother’s dreams? There were so many questions and not enough answers and it made Jenny want to scream.

As she entered her room, she found Mike sitting on her bed. “Good God, Mike,” She jumped back and clutched her chest in surprise. “Are you always determined to scare me?”

“Sorry,” He mumbled, staring down at the floor.

Jenny could see that the events of the day were weighing heavily on him. “So, are chivalry _and_ privacy dead or do you just like hanging around me?” She tried to joke. Maybe if she could get him to smile, he could feel better.

“I assume you know what happened today,” He said, ignoring her joking. Every time he blinked, he could see the machete in Bello’s hand, the screams the man made, the feeling of blood splattering all over him.

“Yeah,” Jenny said, letting sympathy overtake her. “I’m sorry, Mike.”

Mike lifted his head, but still didn’t look towards her. Paul Briggs was to blame his current state, not her. But he didn’t want to talk about it. Especially not to his sister. Instead, he stood up and gestured to her speakers that were sitting on her desk. “I could use a little pick-me-up.”

“What do you mean?” She questioned. Was he really trying to avoid the gigantic elephant in the room by requesting a dance?

“I think you were right before. I shouldn’t knock something until I’ve tried it.” Mike pulled his phone from his pocket and hooked it into the speakers, scrolling through his music selection.

“Mike, are you sure…”

“Jenny, please,” Finally, his blue eyes locked onto hers. She could see what Charlie had been talking about before. Within those eyes, she could see that he was trying to put on a brave face. For the first time since meeting him, she saw a look of vulnerability. “I just need to feel like a person.”

Slowly, Jenny nodded. “Okay. Then hit it, Mr. DJ.”

He allowed a smirk on his face and hit a button. “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” started blaring through the speakers.

Jenny couldn’t help but laugh at the choice of song. Not that she could recall, but that was her "trigger" song when she was really drunk. Whenever it played at a bar, she always lost her mind. Now, she was one hundred percent sober, but still allowed herself to enjoy it. She closed her door behind her. “Excellent choice,” She told him as she started to move her hips to the beat. “But you better bring you’re a-game, Warren. ‘Cause I got some sick moves.” They both danced around her room and sang along to song. They let themselves sway and be crazy, like they were teenagers at a sleepover. Sometimes, he would grab her and spin her around, causing her to giggle. Other times, she would take him and dip him like they were at a 50’s sock hop. She was much stronger than she looked. It was a rare moment of joy, pure unadulterated joy.

Finally, the song ended and they both collapsed onto their backs on her bed, panting and giggling like children. “Okay, that was pretty fun,” Mike admitted once they caught their breath.

“See, I told you,” She nudged him in the side. “I’m a genius and not just when it comes to computers.” Turning her head to look over at him, she dared herself to say what was on the tip of her tongue. “I’m sorry about Paul.”

The smile on his face slowly dissolved. “It’s not your fault, Jenny.”

“I know,” She then turned her body onto her side and propped her head up onto her arm. Still, he didn’t want to make eye contact with her. “But you didn’t deserve to go through that. Sometimes, he likes to play a little too close to the edge of the cliff.”

He exhaled through his nose, staring up at the ceiling. “Your brother is a piece of work,” He stated, half-jokingly.

“Preachin’ to the goddamn choir, Mikey,” She shook her head, as he forced a chuckle. Something in her wanted to tell him about Fred Walsh. About her suspicions about Paul’s involvement with Odin. About what Jangles meant to him. Something wanted to trust him. But he had been through too much that day. “Hey,” She grabbed a hold of his shoulder, indicating that she wanted him to look at her.

Reluctantly, he peeled his gaze away from the ceiling and connected to her hazel eyes. Something in him wanted to confide in her about his investigation into Paul. Ask her if she knew anything about Jangles. Tell her about Juan Badillo and all that he knew about her brother. He wanted to trust her. But how could he?

“You have a really hard job,” She spoke gently, not removing her hand from his shoulder. “Not a lot of people can handle a life like this. And you know, you don’t have to be Mr. Tough Guy all the time. I mean, you're still pretty fresh to this whole life. With all the shit you’ve seen, no one would blame you if you freaked out a little.”

He felt her thumb rub his shoulder soothingly. Then, he realized how close they actually were. Something about the way they were laying on her bed was comforting. But that shouldn’t be happening. But just looking into her eyes, it was almost like feeling she was covering him with a blanket of security. Jenny felt her head move towards him, as if someone was pulling it on a string.

DING! Both of them jumped at the sound of Mike’s phone loudly dinging through the speakers. They then remembered that his phone was still hooked up. Mike got up to see what the notification was. Abby. _When are you free?_ The text read. _Christ, how could I forget about Abby?_

“Duty calls?” He heard Jenny say behind him. She was now sitting up and fiddling with a loose string on her duvet, feeling reality settle in.

“Yeah, it’s Bello,” Mike quickly unplugged his phone from the speaker and turned to face her. “Thanks. For the dance.”

He rushed out of the room before any other words could be exchanged. Jenny buried her face in her hands, feeling shame for wanting to kiss him. Mike’s brain was racing. He had to get out of the house. Away from Paul, away from Jenny. There was only one place he could think of. Abby’s.


	8. Rules

“I’m not really in a rule-following mood,” Mike had told Abby after inviting her over to his place. He had let himself stew in anger and resentment against Paul Briggs long enough. Besides, they had set up dinner reservations, so it’s not like she was staying the night. They would pop in, take a quick tour, then go out to eat before anyone even knew they were there. Most of the house was out on assignment anyway. He sent a text to everyone in the house to see where they were at. Everyone responded, except Jenny. Maybe she would be asleep…

Still, Mike couldn’t help but feel guilt hit like a rock in the pit of his stomach as soon as Abby passed the threshold. She looked around in wonderment at the amazing house, but he was too busy worrying that someone was going to come home early or discover them hanging around. He had told the house that he had called things off with Abby. They would not be happy to find them here no matter what. He tried to seem calm and collected for Abby, but she didn’t see him constantly looking over his shoulder.

When she asked to see his room, internally he screamed, but kept a cool composure. She started to skip excitedly towards the stairs and before he knew what he was doing, he blocked her way. “What? Your room is up there, right?” Abby asked, looking up at him curiously.

 _But if Jenny is home, then we need to be quiet,_ Mike thought. _What do I do now?_ “It’s just that we keep graveyard hours, so upstairs is kinda… a quiet zone.” He stammered through his words.

“Got it,” Abby nodded and made her voice quiet.

Meanwhile, Jenny was in her room, staring at her phone. She had gotten Mike’s text, asking where she was. But she wasn’t ready to face him yet. It was super obvious that she was about to kiss him before he left. Why? Sure, she flirted with him, but mostly because it amused her. But what was really haunting her was the fact that it looked like Mike wanted to kiss her, too.

Her eyes were glued to the phone screen. She had pinged Paul’s cell phone and was watching his movements. Guilt was consuming her, thinking about her deal she made with Fred Walsh. Having someone tail her own brother seemed wrong, despite all the reasons she told herself. Maybe she should call it off… Before she knew it, she had already dialed his number. Luckily, it went to voicemail. "Hey, Fred, it's Jenny," She said, making her voice sound as casual as she could. "So, I was just... checking in and see how you're doing... But I guess I've called at a bad time. Will you give me a ring back when you get this? Thanks." She tossed the phone onto her bed and buried her face in her hands. Wishing upon any star that she could have been born into a different family. Or with the ability to read minds.

Then, she heard some creaking out in the hall that snapped her back to reality, followed by sounds of whispers. Everyone was supposed to be out on assignment, but it was clear that someone was in the house and sneaking around upstairs. Jenny felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She reached for the gun stashed in her bedside table, being careful not to make a sound. Sliding her phone in her back pocket, just in case she needed to call for backup, Jenny inched towards her bedroom door.

Carefully opening, she peered out into the hall, finding it clear of any person trying to sneak around. Once she opened the door fully and stepped outside, holding her gun out in front of her, movement to her left caught her eye. Turning her head that way, she saw a girl standing in Mike’s doorway. A girl she instantly knew was Abby. Abby, upon seeing the gun in Jenny’s hand, gasped and retreated back into his room, quickly shutting the door.

“Dammit, Mike,” Jenny cursed under her breath. There were a few rules in Graceland, not many but they were sacred nonetheless. One of the bigger ones was no civilians upstairs. Carefully, putting her gun back in her room and shutting the door, Jenny ran over and knocked on Mike’s door. “Mike, you in there?” She tried to make her voice sound sweet and non-threatening, even though she wanted to beat Mike to a pulp.

After a couple of seconds, Mike opened the door, as Jenny breezed passed him, shooting him a quick death glare. “Hey, Abby, right?” She greeted the pretty brunette with a smile. Abby only looked at her with fear and worry. “I’m sorry if I scared you. My dad is just one of those gun-toting, ‘single girl in the big city needs to be protected’ types, you know? But, uh, do you mind if I borrow your _boyfriend_ ,” She placed a hand on Mike’s shoulder, still painting a sweet and friendly smile over her face. “For just one second?”

Jenny then made her way out into the hallway, steam gushing out of her ears. Mike begrudgingly followed close behind her. When she heard the door close behind her, she turned on her heels and faced him, her face twisted with rage. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” She whispered with enough fury to light a fireplace.

“I know, I know,” Mike nodded, hanging his head. “I messed up. But I’ll cover this…”

“No, _I’ll_ cover this.” Jenny interjected. Even though her voice was lowered, the electricity coming from it was enough to rival a stun gun. “I’m going to go make sure no one else is here. You need to get her out of here in the next 30 seconds or I will drag her out myself.” With a huff, she went about making sure the house was empty, as Mike tried desperately to comfort Abby and salvage what he could. But then she discovered his gun. It was over.

He escorted her to the door, where they lingered. He tried to find some sort of magic phrase to make this all okay again, but nothing came up. The trust that were always in her eyes when she looked at him was gone. Now, she could barely look him in the eye.

Jenny came down the stairs, stopping when she saw the two of them at the front door.

“Who are you, Mike?” Abby asked him softly. “Call me if you ever figure that out.” Then, she slipped out the door, her cheeks wet with tears. Mike closed the door behind her and felt like the biggest asshole alive.

“What the hell were thinking?” Jenny asked finally, as she descended the rest of the stairs towards him.

“She doesn’t know anything, alright?” He stated in a monotone voice. “The house is safe.” There was no hiding the bitterness that consumed him. Mike retreated towards the kitchen, needing a beer.

“But you just risked _everything_ ,” Jenny followed after him.

“I know, okay,” Mike groaned. “And it’s over.” He opened the fridge door with a huff.

“You think that just because you saw some guy’s hand get chopped off today that you can start playing rebel without a cause?” Jenny asked. Mike hung his head but kept his back towards her. “What happened to our little dance session? How did you go from that to…”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Mike finally looked towards her. “Have _you_ ever witnessed a hand being lobbed off by a machete? Do you know what the appropriate response is?”

“I know that it doesn’t warrant compromising the entire house, Mike,” She spat back. “What were you thinking?”

“I was just sick of lying to her.” He grabbed a beer and closed the door behind him.

“What are you talking about? You have been lying to her from the start. We’ve been over this.” Jenny jabbed a finger in his direction. “Besides, if we want to talk about lying, you told me that it was over.”

“I just wanted to see…”

“See what? If you could get away with lying? I told you that I don’t like liars, Mike. What is it about that girl that’s making you so stupid?”

He bit his tongue, trying not blow his lid. “I guess… I can be myself around her.”

“No, you can’t.” Jenny negated. “You told her you were a pilot, for god’s sake. It has been one lie after another. The only truth you've told her is your name.”

Finally, he couldn’t hold his anger back anymore. From all of the events that happened that day and having Jenny scold him like a child, he was not having any of it. “You know what?” He ripped the lid off his beer and slammed it on to the counter. “I guess I could be a version of myself. Or the old me. I don’t know, but it was something that was safe.”

“Safe?!” Jenny countered his anger. “You _are_ safe, dumbass. That’s what Graceland is for.”

“Yeah, well, Graceland doesn’t work like that for me,” He muttered, sipping his beer.

“What does that mean?”

Mike bit his tongue again. _Shit._ He was letting his emotions get the better of him. “It just doesn’t.” He steeled himself. “There’s just no one here I can be honest with. It’s all lies, Jenny.”

“You can be honest with me,” She said. “If that’s what it’s going to take to get you to understand the severity of what you just did.”

He chuckled darkly and leaned against the counter, staring at the floor. “You know you’re the one who told me that it was okay to freak out a little.”

“I didn’t mean…” Jenny took a deep breath, trying to cool herself down. “Look, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you have a really hard job. And there’s always going to be some part of you that is uncomfortable with the lies, and that’s a good thing, Mike. I like that about you. And you are allowed to freak out, but within reason. We, in this house, care about each other. That’s why we have rules in place, to protect ourselves and each other.”

Mike wanted to point out all of the rules Paul has broken, just in the few months he’s been in Graceland alone. He wanted to point out all the lies that everyone has told. “You know, Paul breaks the rules all the time,” He argued. “I break one, for the first time in my life, and it blows up in my face.”

Jenny regarded him carefully. She wondered if he knew exactly how many rules he had broken over the years, and specifically, which rules he had broken. But she shrugged. “You’re not Paul. And breaking the rules is okay every now and then. Lord knows I've broken many rules in my lifetime. But you have to know which ones to break.”

"Well, like I said, it's over." He slumped his shoulders in defeat. "You all win."

"It's not about winning, Mike. Is that why you don't think you can be honest with anyone?"

He steeled himself, fixating an intense stare down at the floor. "I guess I don't know who the real me is anymore."

She wanted to leave but stopped before taking a step. “I can’t speak for the rest of the house, but I can speak for myself. Remember when we hung out on the beach when we first met? Or even our little dance session a few hours ago? I saw the real Mike, then. I saw the honest version of you, no covers, no Paul, just pure you.” She reached out and gently placed her hand on his chest. He could feel his heartrate increase under her touch. They locked eyes as she continued. “This, right here, is the real Mike. What I see in front of me right now is the real Mike. You can try to cover it up all you want, but I see you. I don’t know why you think you can’t be honest with anyone here, but you can be honest with me. Because I know who you are.”

“And who am I?” He asked, his voice barely above a whisper. His hand overlapped hers, which was still pressed against him.

She smiled up at him. “You’re a good person.” A small grin formed over his face. Before either of them knew what was really happening, their lips connected. As opposed to the last time they kissed, albeit for a cover, this one was gentle and timid. Almost as if their mouths were fragile.

Jenny pulled away, staring down at the ground for a moment, before looking back at him. “I’m not a rebound, Mike,” She told him. He opened his mouth to try and reassure her that this wasn’t a rebound, but she held a hand, cutting him off. “You’ve been through a lot today, and you need some time to think. If you want to talk, my door is always open.” With all the strength she had, she tore herself away from him and fled to her room.

Mike’s head was swirling. How could he let himself do that? Mere seconds after things ended with Abby. And not to mention that he was investigating her brother, who was a conniving person that treated people like pawns on a chess board. “Shit,” He muttered aloud to an empty room.


	9. Slippery

The next day, most of the house found themselves out in the field again. Mike had told Bello that Odin hadn’t delivered on his last drop of drugs at they gym, which forced a meet. They weren’t given an exact place other than a local shopping area. Charlie and Johnny were out in the streets, so they could keep an eye on Bello. Paul was set up in a car, also keeping an eye on things. Mike was in the surveillance van running the operation. There were some city cameras set up, but they didn’t cover a lot of the hustle and bustle of the street, hence why Charlie, Johnny, and Paul were out there.

Suddenly, behind him, Mike heard a commotion. Sounds of a dispute just outside of the van. He poked his head out, to try and quiet them so they didn’t blow their cover. Once he did, however, he stopped. There on the street, he saw Jenny clutching a laptop to her chest and getting in the face of the one of the agents outside. “Jenny?” He asked.

Upon hearing her name, she looked towards him. “Mike, please tell this Neanderthal to let me through.”

“She’s claiming she’s working the case, sir,” The agent explained.

“Yes, she is. Let her through,” He waved her in, jumping down to the concrete as she approached him. “What are you doing here?” He asked. They hadn’t really talked since their little kiss in the kitchen the previous night. Something in him was worried that she was going to want to hash things out right there.

“I’m here to save your bacon,” She replied, pushing past him and hopping into the van.

“Whoa, Jenny, you can’t just…” He followed close behind her.

“Look, Mike,” She turned to face him. “You hired me to help you guys with this Odin case, right?”

“Right.”

“So, I’ll need to access the video feeds and connect them to my laptop here.” Jenny turned and sat down in the chair, powering up her laptop.

“Are you going to explain what it is you’re doing?” He asked her, as she messed with a bunch of wires and cables around the already set up machines.

“Remember the other day when I was running facial recognition software on the people at the pier?” She asked as she worked. “Well, after hours of sorting through them, I put all of them into a database. If I can run that same software on the cameras here, I can…”

“See if anyone overlaps.” He nodded, finally understanding.

“I’m not saying that it will get the one person you’re looking for,” She explained, typing away at her laptop. “But maybe it will help narrow down your search.”

“You’re a genius,” Mike commented.

“Duh.” She shrugged and spoke into the walkie that transmitted to everyone in the field. “Good morning, Vietnam! This is your captain, Jennifer Briggs speaking. Please put your chairs in the upright position and no flash photography.”

“Jenny!” Johnny laughed. “I was wondering when you were going to show up.”

“Sleep in this morning?” Charlie joked.

“Yeah, Johnny’s mom kept me up all night,” Jenny snorted.

“Oh, so it’s like that, huh?” Johnny retorted back.

“Children,” Paul’s voice came through. “Might I remind you that we are on taxpayer time?”

“Paul’s right,” Mike grabbed the walkie from Jenny. “Focus up, people.”

Begrudgingly, Jenny went to work syncing up the camera feeds to her laptop’s database. At first, there were a few overlaps, but they turned out to be agents on the case. “At least we know it works,” Jenny shrugged.

“Okay, Bello’s texting,” Johnny’s voice informed them. Everyone looked and saw Bello looking down at his phone for a moment. Then he moved down the street, very casually as if he were enjoying a nice stroll. “He just walked into USA Clothing,” Charlie reported. She was the closest to him and was keeping a close tail on him.

“Keep on him, Mama,” Jenny encouraged, still working with her devices.

“Guys, I just ran the plates on a blue sedan that was reported stolen this morning,” Paul’s voice came through. “Johnny, can you cover the front while I pursue?”

“Yeah, copy,” He replied.

“Hey, Briggs,” Mike said. “You want to send in some marked units for support?”

“Nah, I can handle this myself,” Paul assured him.

Normally, Jenny would have been all over it, checking to see what the story was on the stolen car, but she was busy working through some minor bugs her software was experiencing. She made a mental note to check on it later. “Jenny, can you get us into the store’s camera system?” Mike asked her.

“Oh, sure, master, I wasn’t doing anything anyway.” She replied sarcastically, sliding over and punching keys onto a separate monitor. For the briefest of instances, her arm brushed Mike’s, sending what felt like a shockwave through both of them. Jenny tried not to acknowledge it and let her fingers fly. Mike backed up a little, but not before catching a whiff of her shampoo. Fruity.

With a final hit of a key, the camera images inside the store pulled up. Charlie was still close on Bello’s tail, who was now acting like he was trying to try on clothes. Mike clicked around to find the right angle, while Jenny went back to her own laptop. He could see Bello retreat towards the changing rooms. “Hey, Charlie, I don’t have eyes on that changing room. Can you get over there?”

“What? No cameras set up where people undress?” Jenny joked absentmindedly. “Prudes.”

Mike allowed a small chuckle but was too focused on the mission at hand. Besides, he was sure if he joked around with her further, it would just lead to an awkward conversation. This was not the time and place for that kind of talk.

“Hey, guys,” Paul’s voice chimed back in. “The car checked out. I’m heading back to position. I’ll be there in five.”

“Copy that.” Mike acknowledged, before turning to Jenny. “Anything on your end?”

“Other than our guys, no, not so far,” She answered. “Although, we did get a hit on a five-year old girl, so I would say that we might be on to something.”

He suppressed a smile. “What if we feed the store’s security footage to the database?”

Jenny hesitated. “That might take a little longer than you might like. I just developed the program this morning, and I’m still working out the bugs. So far it’s mad at me for overloading it with too many faces, so you’ll have to give me a minute.”

“Well, if anyone can do it, you can,” He encouraged, placing a friendly hand on her shoulder before he realized it. Another shockwave. _Dammit, Mike, control yourself_ , he thought as he removed his hand. Jenny could only nod silently, trying to pour all of her focus into her work and not on how fast her heart was racing.

“He’s gone, Mike. I don’t see his feet.” Charlie’s voice came through, cutting the tension in the air.

“But he didn’t come out.” He said looking at the screen showing the fitting rooms. “What do you mean? Jenny, he didn’t come out, right?”

Again, Jenny slid over to the monitor, and clicked through the images. “No, he didn’t come out,” She confirmed gravely. By then, Charlie had kicked the door of the room Bello had disappeared into.

“Uh, guys?” Johnny spoke up. “Bello just walked out of the other store, Chiffino’s.”

“What?” Jenny pulled up the outside footage again, and saw that Johnny was right.

“How’d he get over there?” Mike asked.

“I don’t know, but he’s carrying something in his hand.” Johnny answered. “I think we just missed the meet.”

“Good Christ,” Jenny muttered under breath, fingers flying over keys at the speed of light.

“Oh, my God, Mike,” Charlie added. “There’s a hole in the wall.”

“Should I move in? Odin might still be in there.” Johnny quickly asserted.

“No, no, you wait until Bello’s gone, okay?” Mike ordered, standing up. “I’ll cover the rear. You cover Chiffino’s. Charlie, you keep that hole blocked off. Odin is not getting passed us.” He grabbed onto his gun and withdrew it from its holster. “Jenny, I want any and all camera footage pointed in that direction logged and analyzed. I want to know how Bello got from Point A to B.”

“Already on it.” She nodded, as he flew out the back of the surveillance van and into action. Her mind raced as fast as her keystrokes. On the monitors, she could see Johnny and Mike run like lightning. In her mind, she sent a quick prayer of protection over them to whoever was listening.

“Guys, I’m 30 seconds out.” Paul came through. “Where is everyone?”

“In pursuit,” Jenny answered, one hand still flying away at the machines, the other holding onto the walkie. “What’s your location?” She paused, waiting for him to respond. No answer came through. “Paul?” His transmission then cut out. “Goddammit!” She slammed the walkie down, now determined more than ever to find this slippery Odin. If her brother died at the hands of this dealer, hell was going to rain down on him.

“I’m at the back entrance now.” Mike’s voice came through, whispered low.

“Nobody came out of Chiffino’s.” Johnny called back.

“Or the dressing room hall.” Charlie chimed in.

“Jenny, he’s here. I can feel it.” The urgency in Mike’s voice sank her stomach to the ground.

“Please, be careful.” She answered back to him. As she went through the camera footage, she couldn’t find where they were located, but was coming up short. _Please, let me get eyes on them._ The sounds of muffled grunts came through. Like someone was struggling. “Guys?”

“Yo, Mike, come in.” Johnny urged.

“Does anyone have eyes on him?” Jenny asked.

“No, I hear a struggle.” Charlie reported.

“Mike, sound off.” Jenny ordered. No reply came through. Just more grunts. “Mike?”

“I think it’s over there, Charlie,” Johnny said.

“Move, move,” Jenny’s search for the room they were in came to a halt. In front of her, she could see the screen labeled Back Entrance and Warehouse, but the feed was black. Meaning the cameras weren’t working. Unable to sit anymore, she stood, hoping to hear someone report soon. Then the sound of a gun firing made her jump out of her skin.

“Man down, man down.” Paul’s voice finally came back through. “Back supply area.”

“Copy that, all units move.” Jenny ordered, feeling relieved to hear her brother’s voice, but still waiting to hear from the others.

“What the hell happened?” She heard Charlie’s shock laced in her voice.

Johnny was the next person to speak. “Is Mike…”

“No, no, no, he’s fine.” Paul spoke quickly. “Odin just ran out the back. I might have shot him. Go!”

“Paul, what is it? What happened?” Jenny interjected.

“Mike’s unconscious.” He replied. “Hey, buddy. Easy. You okay?”

“Yeah,” Mike’s weak voice came through, making Jenny finally let out the breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding.

“Did you see Odin?” Paul asked him.

“No,” He replied, unable to hide his immense disappointment.

Jenny slumped back into the chair and buried her face in her hands, letting all of the worry of the situation wash away. Suddenly, she was reminded why she didn’t go into the field too often.

>>>

“You don’t feel warm,” Jenny commented, pressing her hand up to Paul’s forehead. He was laying in his bed, tucked in underneath his blankets with Jenny sitting beside him. After they had got back from their failed meet with Bello and Odin, he had told everyone he wasn’t feeling well and was going to lie down. Truthfully, during his and Mike’s physical altercation in the supply area, Mike had bruised or broken a few of his ribs. But he couldn’t tell anyone that. Because he was supposed to have been the rescuer not the abuser. Of course, he forgot how much of a worry wart his sister is.

“Maybe it’s just from all the excitement today.” Paul supposed coolly.

“Yeah, maybe,” Jenny nodded, looking over him carefully. In truth, she was performing her own lie detector test on him. His transmission had cut out. Again. And when it did cut out, Mike gets knocked unconscious. That couldn’t have been a coincidence.

“I think I just need some R and R, and I’ll be right as rain,” He patted her hands assuringly, his movements very slow and careful.

“You sure you didn’t get a good look at him?” Jenny pressed, locking her eyes onto him.

Briggs sighed and stared up to the ceiling. “I don’t know… It all happened so fast. Honestly, it’s all… just one big blur.”

“You know your watch cut out again,” She pointed out, watching every movement in his face.

“Again?” Paul forced a smile. “Ain’t that just perfect. Well, maybe we ought to buy name brand next time.”

He was trying to joke to steer away from her investigating further. But it wasn’t working. He was hiding something. “I guess it was a good thing you showed up when you did,” Jenny told him. “Who knows what would have happened to Mike.”

“Yeah,” He nodded, feeling very comfortable. He could tell she was suspecting something. “Well, I’m going to try and get some shut eye.”

Jenny nodded. She shifted her feet down on the floor but paused at the edge of the bed. “You know, you can still tell me things,” She offered to him gently. Maybe if she gave him an out, he would come clean. “I know I said that I’m here to make sure you don’t slip up, but I am still on your team.”

“I know that, Jenn.” He replied softly.

“So… you would tell me if you were in trouble or having problems?”

Paul looked to his little sister. “Little” seemed to be an inappropriate description for her now. She was way older than the small ten-year old girl who used to challenge him to wrestling matches in the back yard. Time and time again, she had proven to him that she was a strong individual and a real force to reckoned with. But she was still his sister. There were some things she just had to be protected from. “I would.” He told her, trying to sound as sincere as he could.

For another moment, she studied his face, waiting for the truth to come pouring out of him. But it was clear that he wasn’t going to share anymore with her. Hiding her disappointment, she pushed a smile and nodded. “Let me know if you need anything.” And with that, she exited the room, closing the door behind her. Sure, she had felt like she was betraying her brother before by hiring Fred Walsh to investigate him. But now it was she who felt betrayed by Paul. She wondered if they would ever get back to the way things were.

>>>

_“Hi, you’ve reached Fred Walsh’s cell. Clearly, I can’t get to the phone right now, but if you leave your information, I will call you back when I can.”_

“Hey, Fred, It’s Jenny again. This would be the third voicemail I’ve left. I’m getting kind of worried. Look, I know, I know, you have your precious ‘methods’, but still, no word? Well… just please call me when you get the chance. Thanks”


	10. Shockwave

Things were still simmering down from the last Bello and Odin fiasco. Paul was keeping to himself for the most part, spending a lot of time in his room when he wasn’t working on a case. Mike and Jenny had kept their distance from each other. Not to say that they ignored one another; they were cordial and joked around when everyone else was around. But they were never alone together. Both of them wanted to talk about their kiss, the shockwaves they felt around each other. But neither one of them were willing to compromise or break the ice. Not to mention, they both were equally as suspicious of Briggs, unbeknownst to the other players.

One morning when Jenny made her way down the stairs and into the kitchen, the smell of something hideous hitting her nostrils. Johnny was making what he called “ghetto omelets”, which was a mess of all sorts of ingredients, while Charlie, Paige, Mike, and Paul were all milling around him.

“I would say ‘good morning’,” Jenny greeted as she entered the room, scrunching her nose. “But it smells like someone died in here. Should I be concerned?”

“Johnny’s cooking,” Charlie explained.

“Yeah, I can see that.” Jenny nodded towards the pan in front of him. “Is that a witches’ brew?”

“Y’all are way too quick to judge,” Johnny insisted as the rest of the room chuckled silently. “Ghetto scramble gives you the energy of a full day of…” He turned and pointed a spatula towards Mike at the other end of the island. “Dippin’ dudes arms in lead.”

Everyone in the room paused, looking between Johnny and Mike. He was, of course, referring to when Mike witnessed Bello chop a guy’s hand off and then him having to seal the wound off with hot lead. They hadn’t really talked about it as a house. Jenny looked to Mike, trying to get a read on his reaction. No one else in the house knew that he had slipped up and brought his old girlfriend, Abby, to Graceland. “Too soon?” Johnny asked, almost apologetically.

Mike took a quick look around. “Nah, it’s cool,” He said dismissively. “That did take some energy.”

Charlie and Paige chuckled to themselves. Jenny slapped Johnny on the arm and gave him a warning look. “That message you sent to Caza,” Paul addressed Mike. “Any response?”

“All quiet,” He replied, as Jenny gently scooted past him to go set up her laptop on the table. The close proximity to each other made both of them blush, feeling the shockwave being this close.

“Not for much longer, I’ll bet,” Paul assured him, seemingly unaware of the awkwardness between the two of them. “If Jangles shows up, it’s going to get real bloody, real fast.” The mention of the name earned him a secret glance from Jenny.

“Bello’s ready for him.” Mike shrugged.

“Bello _thinks_ he is ready for Jangles.” Briggs countered.

“Hey, let’s not forget about Odin Rossi,” Charlie reminded him. “He’s the reason why Jangles is coming in the first place.”

“Yep, plus Odin’s still a ghost. When Jangles finds him, he is going to turn on Bello and his crew, and he’s going to do it with an exclamation point.”

“But that’s what I’m saying, let’s get Odin so we can end this thing. Jenny, anything on the security footage?”

Jenny shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. “Through our infinite strokes of luck, the cameras in the back supply area and alleyway were not working. Some sort of wiring malfunction. And my database that tried to overlap the patrons at the pier and the stores came up empty.”

Paul did not think about the cameras back during the operation, but said a quick prayer of gratitude for the luck he found himself in. “Look, I know how badly you want to get this guy, Chuck,” He turned back to her and started walking towards her. “So do I. I mean, if we can catch his scent, it’s all good. Otherwise, I’d rather not waste the energy on the hunt, you know?”

“Okay,” She replied. “If that’s what you think is best.” The biting sarcasm in her voice was about as subtle neon sign. After giving him a stare down, Charlie slipped upstairs. Then, Mike’s phone beeped.

He looked down at it. “Briggs, speak of the devil.” He sighed, handing the phone towards him. “You might be right.”

Paul looked down at the screen and shook his head. “Blood in the streets, my children. Definitely going to have to take a raincheck on that, uh, ghetto scramble, Johnny.”

“You sure?” Johnny asked him as both him and Mike all but fled from the kitchen.

“What the hell, I’ll try some, Johnny,” Jenny spoke up.

Paige, who was eating a bowl of cereal, shot her a look of shock. “You serious?”

“That’s what I’m talking about!” Johnny cheered happily. “Get ready to have a full balanced scramble, girl.”

“Want me to notify your next of kin?” Paige joked.

“I’m pretty sure that would be Paul,” Jenny informed her.

Johnny pushed a plate down in front of her with a big smile. “Here you go, chica, Breakfast of champions.” He then noticed that Paige was eating cereal out of a bowl. “Didn’t you just say you were on a cleanse?”

She gave him a guilty look as Jenny snickered into her plate. DJ entered the kitchen, in the middle of pulling his dreads into a ponytail. “Before you ask, Johnny,” He said, raising a hand out towards an eager looking roommate. “No, I will not eat your food. I just ate dirt and sand, so I’m all full.”

As the two of them started to bicker amongst themselves, Paige slid down next to Jenny at the table. “Can I enlist your services to help me prove a theory I’m working on?” She asked her, still eating her cereal.

“Welcome to my office,” Jenny nodded, grabbing a hold of her laptop. “What do you need?”

“I’m in with this dealer who is trying very hard to appear like he isn’t using. I mean, I’ve seen the track marks on him, the shakes, everything, but he’s always telling me that he’s got diabetes or something.”

“Name?” She was already typing away.

“Trey Barrows.”

After typing in the name, Paige leaned over Jenny’s shoulder to see the screen. “Okay, so if I pull up medical records… looks like he does have a medical marijuana license. But it’s for glaucoma. No signs of diabetes or whatever other illness warrants a needle. But looks like his dad has diabetes, so that’s probably the source of inspiration.”

“I knew it, lying bastard,” She muttered under her breath. “What about his…”

“Financial records, I’m already searching.” A few more keystrokes and clicks brought up the bank statements. “Well, he’s got a sick cat, as apparent by the many vet bills. What’s his real job?”

“Um, I think he’s a delivery driver for some Chinese restaurant.”

“Hm. Well, maybe I should change careers, because he regularly deposits a large wad of cash every week. I didn’t realize delivery drivers make so much in tips.”

Paige smiled wickedly. “They don’t. Thanks, Jenny.” With a skip in her step, she stood before turning back to face her friend. "So what's the deal with you and Levi?" A wicked grin crossed over her face. 

Jenny shrugged. "What do you mean?" 

She leaned in closer, trying not to have Johnny's nosy ears pick up on what they were talking about. "Come on, you think I can't tell? You guys are all weird around each other. Not to mention, all the secret glances that you give each other when one of you isn't looking." 

"You're delusional," Jenny rolled her eyes nonchalantly, scooping in a bite of Johnny's eggs. "You know, this isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be." 

"I told you!" They heard Johnny say behind them. "Score one for Tuturro!" 

"Jenny, I respect the hell out of you," Dale looked in her direction. "But you are wrong. Hey, Paige, I could use your beautiful brain on this case." 

Paige agreed to help him, but not before whispering to Jenny, "We're not done talking about this." 

Once the two of them slipped upstairs, Johnny sat down across from her with his large plate of "ghetto scramble". He flashed her a grin and raised a forkful of food towards her. "Cheers."

>>>

One of the problems with living with federal agents. They were hardly ever around. Jenny found herself alone that day as everyone headed out to their assignments. She had tried to dig for more information about Odin, still came up empty. Even got to the point, where she tried watching cheesy daytime TV with Judge Judy and all the soap operas. But nothing could satiate her boredom. There was still no word yet from Fred Walsh. Part of her wondered if it was because he wasn’t working on it at all.

Blessfully, her phone started to ring, so she looked to see who came up on Caller ID. Mike. Taking a breath to ready herself, she reluctantly answered the phone. “Hey.”

“Hi,” came the response on the other end. Clearly, he was just as uncomfortable as she was. “So, that, uh, thing me and Paul responded to this morning. Yeah, it turned out to be cut off feet dangling from a powerline.” He tried to be as professional as he could.

“Yikes,” Jenny grimaced. “I’m guessing that was a message of some sort?”

“A pretty clear one, yeah. We think it’s from Jangles.”

Her breath stalled at the mention of the name again. With Paul in this investigation, he was in dangerous territory. Was Jangles coming for him to finish what he started? Was Paul going to go rogue and take his revenge on the man who nearly ruined his life? “Double yikes.” Jenny maintained her cool. “So… why are you telling me?”

“Well, Bello is spooked and wants to be moved to a safe house.” Mike replied. “We’ve already scoped out a place. But… I was hoping you could run the surveillance team.”

“Me?”

“Yeah,” Mike could have listed a bunch of reasons why he chose her. But instead he cited “You are a genius, after all.”

Jenny let out a chuckle. “What exactly would I do?”

“You’ll be given a couple of agents and parked somewhere close by, listening and watching the movements around the house. Any new person showing their face will need to be documented and looked into. If Jangles is in town, it might draw Odin out. We might be able to capture both of them.” He hesitated before saying the next part. “I can’t think of anyone who I trust more to run this op.”

Because he wasn’t there to see her, she allowed herself to blush. “Okay, consider it done.”

>>>

Sure enough, the next day, Jenny found herself in a small van, disguised as some cable repair vehicle. Like Mike had promised, she had three agents. One, Walters, was posted in the driver’s seat, monitoring the street for any activity. The other two, Graham and Thomas, were stowed in the back of the van with Jenny. They were all wired up with sound and video watching the safe house Bello was hiding in.

Over the next couple of days, they listened and watched as Bello armed his watchdogs with heavier artillery. He did not seem to be that worried about the looming threat of Jangles, other than the increase in guns. Mike was tasked to train the bodyguards to use the new assault rifles. The more time passed, the antsier he got. He wanted to get Bell locked up before anyone had to use the rifles. Too much blood was on his hands already.

As Jenny and Mike worked more together, the awkwardness between them lessened slightly. They were still professional, but they also rediscovered the friendship they had already formed. Joking around with each other, going to the other person to rant about their frustrating job. They were getting more comfortable with each other. But still, Jenny felt like he was still holding things back. Like he had a whole secret personality that he was keeping tucked away.

“Jesus, Mike,” Jenny whistled as she entered his room one day. He was sitting on his bed with a very large assault rifle in hand. “Careful where you point that thing.”

Mike chuckled as he fiddled with large gun. He had been tasked by Bello to train the guardsmen to use these kinds of guns, so he was trying to familiarize himself with it. “Or what? I’ll go blind?”

“It’s a possibility, yes,” She smiled as leaned against the door. “I was just going over all the audio picked up from the night crew. Bello hasn’t so much as whispered Odin’s name in his sleep.”

He nodded, gently placing the gun down on his bed. “Yeah, I’m not surprised. I almost admire him for keeping his secret so securely.”

“Why can’t we bring him in?” Jenny questioned. “We have enough to nail his ass to a jail cell wall.”

“I agree with you.” He sighed. “But your brother thinks that he’s the best way to get at Jangles, so… we gotta keep playing it out.”

Resting her head against the doorway, she bit her lip in thought. “I suppose he’s right. But still, it feels icky to keep using Bello as bait. Especially with all of the things we know.”

“Well, it seems like Briggs has his heart on nabbing Jangles.”

“Yeah, but what about Odin? He’s still a ghost in the wind. At least with Jangles, we have the fact that he wears a rattle wherever he goes and enjoys slicing and dicing human beings. With Odin, we got nothing.”

Mike nodded, running his hands through his hair in frustration. He had argued with Briggs several times to let him bring in Bello. He was tired of having to train people to use deadly weapons. First, it was with armor-piercing bullets, now assault rifles. A lot of people were going to get hurt because of him. And there was already too much blood on his hands. “I don’t know. I’m trying to tell myself that he’s right and Jangles is on his way. But this waiting game is getting kind of crazy.”

Despite all of the times, Jangles’ name has been mentioned over the last few days, the sound of it still gave her a gross feeling. She looked back at Mike, studying him closely. Paul wouldn’t have told the new guy about his past… would he? “Yeah, I guess Paul seems to be obsessed with Jangles. It’s just about all he can talk about. What is it with him and Jangles, anyway?” Jenny asked, testing out the waters.

He avoided her gaze and instead focused on putting the assault rifle back in its case. He knew about Jangles, but he wasn’t sure if Jenny knew. Why would a man with a million secrets blab it to his sister? “Your guess is as good as mine.” He answered.

She watched him, as he clicked the gun case shut. Something in her gut told her that he knew that what he was saying. “So, he hasn’t told you anything, or given you any sort of clue?”

Finally, Mike looked at Jenny. Maybe she did know something. Maybe she was just suspicious. Maybe she was somehow able to find out about his investigation into Briggs and had come to kill him. Still, he had to try and defuse the situation, so he forced a smile. “If I know anything about Briggs, it’s that I know nothing about him. He always seems to speak in his own language. Maybe he has told me, but I just didn’t understand.”

Jenny smirked. Her brother did always seem to know things that no one else did. Maybe there was some truth to that. “Maybe he feels like you do. He feels like he can’t trust anyone.”

Mike gave her a knowing look. “That’s not fair.”

“Why?” She shrugged. “You said it, not me. I’m just using your words.”

“Jenny…”

“You told me that there’s no one here you can trust. And I know that there is a lot that you aren’t telling me.”

Mike shoved his hands in his pockets. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Don’t play the dumb blonde card, it’s not a good look on you.” Jenny pushed herself off the wall and took a step towards him. Her hazel eyes scanning his baby blues. “Are you scared of Paul or something? Are you scared of me?”

“I’m not scared.” He assured her.

“Then, what, Mike?” She asked.

“It’s just complicated.”

“Complicated? How is things complicated? Is it because we kissed?”

He scoffed. “Of course not.”

“Well, then please explain to me why you have been keeping an extra distance from me ever since then.”

“What are you talking about? I put you on the surveillance team.”

“Yeah, but you don’t ever talk to me about anything that’s not Bello or Odin related. And the few times that we do talk about something else, then it’s almost like you’ll be reminded of something and then retreat back into yourself. Like you’re breaking a rule.”

Mike sighed deeply. The more time he spent with Jenny, the more he wanted to tell her. In fact, he almost found himself about to open his mouth several times. She made him feel so comfortable, and it was hard to keep secrets from her. But this secret was rather big. She wouldn’t understand why he’s looking into Paul, why he’s had to lie pretty much since the moment he arrived, why he can’t let himself fully relax around her. “I’m just not a big sharer. That’s all.”

Jenny continued to study him with a magnifying glass. There was some truth in that statement, she could tell. But he still continued to steel himself from letting anything slip through the cracks. “You can trust me, Mike.” She told him softly. “I’m surprisingly really good at keeping secrets.”

They both were suddenly aware of how close they were again. How did they always manage to gravitate towards each other whenever they were alone? Both of their hearts were racing like crazy, rivaling the beat of a hummingbird. “I don’t have any secrets worth sharing.”

“Bullshit.” She rolled her eyes and forced herself to turn away. “Fine, don’t trust me. Stay up in your mind palace and let me know how things turn out for you.”

“Wait, no.” He leapt in front of her and closed the door before she could get there. “Jenny, I’m sorry. I do trust you. That’s why I put you on the surveillance team in the first place. It’s just…”

“If the word ‘complicated’ leaves your lips…” She threatened, jabbing a finger at him. “And you don’t have to justify anything. Clearly, you want to keep things professional and I shall oblige.”

“Okay, you know what? I _am_ scared.” The words left his mouth before he even registered that his mouth was moving.

Jenny gave him an equally surprised look. “What?”

 _Think, think, think._ “I am scared to trust you.” Mike said. “You have a way of making me feel comfortable and… it scares me.” She felt her heart leap to her throat. What exactly was he saying? “Jenny…” He reached up and tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “I don’t know what it is, but there’s just this… feeling that washes over me when I’m with you. It’s like… home.”

No words were coming to her, as she searched his face. Looking for any sort of joking or lying trace that she could. But she was seeing the genuine Mike, from what she could tell. “I’m sorry,” He stammered, making her realize that she hadn’t spoken yet. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Sh,” She hushed him before grabbing his face and bringing to hers. It was almost instinctive, like she needed to do it in order to survive. Their lips smashed against each other, Mike’s arms instantly wrapped around her waist, pulling her as close as he could. There was unspoken hunger between them, they craved each other’s touch. For once, neither of them thought. Their infinitely fast-working brains were switched off and let their bodies give into their desires.


	11. Trust

Her fingers traced imaginary shapes on his bare chest, as he had her wrapped in his arms. Their brains had switched back on, thinking back on their past actions and how this affected everything going forward. 

Mike felt like the world’s biggest idiot. He had really gone and slept with the sister of the person he was investigating. This had broken at least ten different rules in the FBI handbook. How could he have let himself do something so stupid? There was no way he could tell her the truth now. She would be devastated. 

Jenny felt like the world’s biggest idiot. How could she have let herself be so stupid? Sure, she had played around and flirted with him from the start, but it was mostly because she enjoyed teasing him. Now, she had gone and slept with her brother’s trainee. Someone who keeps hiding things from her. And things had been so awkward since their kiss in the kitchen, what would be the result of sex? 

Finally, she could no longer stand the silence. “Did we just ruin everything?” 

He kept his gaze up towards the ceiling, as if the answer was written up there. “I don’t know.” 

“Going to be kind of hard to come back from this, huh?”

Mike’s eyebrow twitched up. She has no idea. “I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to do that with you.”

Jenny turned her head up to look at him, her head now cradled against his shoulder. “Me, too.”

Daring himself to look back at her, he gave her a smile. “So I think that means we haven’t ruined everything.” 

“But do you think that… Paul…” 

Mike looked back up at the ceiling. Even if he wasn’t investigating Briggs, this still broke the bro code. “He doesn’t have to know.” What’s another secret he has to keep from Paul?

Jenny hid a scoff. Might as well add to the pile of secrets she was keeping from her brother. “I do think we might have thrown our professionalism out the window.” 

He let out a chuckle and looked at her again. “You think?”

She smiled and raised her head enough to kiss him tenderly, a stark contrast to all the kisses that had just occurred between them. “Then, let’s not worry about it too much. I’m afraid if we think too much, we’ll talk ourselves out of it.”

“Shouldn’t we, though?”

“Well, yes, we should. But I’m not really sure that I want to.” Jenny flashed him a teasing look, as they leaned in for another kiss. 

Knock, knock. Both Mike and Jenny jolted up at the sound. “Hey, Mikey?” Charlie’s muffled voice came through the door. “I need to borrow your brains for a second.”

“Okay, just one second.” He rushed out of bed, scrambling to find his underwear and pants. 

“Oh, and I could also use your help, Jenny, when you get a minute.” Charlie added. They practically hear the smile forming across her face. 

Jenny closed her eyes and buried her hands. “So much for privacy.” She muttered, pulling the sheets up to her chest. 

Mike finished slipping on his jeans and opened the door, revealing a very smiley Charlie. She peered in and nodded toward Jenny. “I hope you two kids are using protection at least.” 

“How did you know?” Jenny asked, hugging the sheets close to her chest. 

“Okay, you two are just lucky that I’m the only one home right now.” She told them, unable to stop smiling. “These walls aren’t that thick, you know.”

Jenny groaned into a pillow. “Oh, god.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t go blabbing to the house, especially Paulie.”

“What do you need, Charlie?” Mike asked, hoping to shoo her away before things got even more awkward. 

“Actually, it’s the girl I’m looking for.” She poked him in the stomach teasingly. “I just wanted to see you squirm. Jenny, get decent and meet me in the phone room. I got a guy I want you to help me dig up some dirt on.” 

“Now?” Jenny rolled her eyes. 

“Yes, now. Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy for the both of you, but I need to borrow your magical fingers before Mikey stakes his claim over them again.” 

She practically skipped down the hall as Mike closed the door. Jenny couldn’t help, but giggle at the whole situation. “Just our luck, huh?” 

Mike shrugged dramatically and chuckled. His phone, sitting on his nightstand, dinged. When he looked to see who had messaged him, he saw that it was Juan Badillo, asking to meet up again. A large rock formed in the pit of his stomach as he was reminded of the stupid mistake he had made. 

“Well, I gotta go, anyway, so I guess it’s a good thing Charlie didn’t need me after all.” He remarked, scanning the floor for his shirt. 

Jenny was also stumbling around the room, collecting her discarded pieces of clothing that were strewn around. “Bello?”

“No, it’s that weekly appointment with my shrink.” That wasn’t all a lie. Juan had started out as a psychologist, but that was just a cover so they could meet regularly to talk about the Briggs investigation. 

“Well, you might actually have a lot to talk about now.” She joked. 

“You think I would disclose those details to a psychologist? He’d probably try to tell me that I have some sort of Oedipus complex or something.” 

“Are you trying to tell me that I remind you of your mother, because I’m not sure I’m cool with that.” She placed a pile of clothing on the bed, starting to slip on her bra. 

He laughed and moved to hug her from behind. “You’re nothing like her. Don’t worry.” 

“Good.” She turned around and threw her arms around his neck. “So, here’s a question I never thought I would ask you? Where did you put underwear?”

>>>

Later that evening, Jenny sat in her room, trying to sort out all of the thoughts rolling around in her head. Mike, Paul, Fred Walsh, Odin, Jangles, so many important characters in this melodramatic play that was her life. It seemed like the longer she stayed at Graceland, the more complicated her problems got. Some part of her wanted to hop on the next plane out of California and never return. Her life before this had been just fine, relatively boring at times, but it was simple. But there was no leaving now. She was in way too deep in all of this to just split. 

In the middle of her contemplation, she heard a crash down the hall. Letting curiosity get the better of her, she went to go investigate where the crash had come from. She found that Mike’s door was open, so she decided to start there. 

“Mike?” She called after poking her head through the door. 

“Hey,” He called from his bathroom. 

“Is everything okay? I heard a pretty dramatic crash…” Jenny’s eyes scanned the room until they saw a picture frame on the ground, shattered glass sprinkled around it. 

“Frame fell.” Mike came out of the bathroom with a band aid in hand. In truth, he had smashed the frame and discovered a listening device hidden in there. Unbeknownst to him, Juan Badillo had bugged him and had been listening to all of his conversations. In the last meeting he had with him, he had referenced a specific line Paul had told him about using “monsters to get to the other monsters”. He didn’t know how much he had listened to. Maybe he knew about him and Jenny. But still, it caused him to boil in anger at the thought of being bugged. In his anger and the act of smashing the frame open, he had sliced his finger on a broken piece of glass. 

“It fell, huh?” She didn’t try to hide her tone. Of course, he was lying. There was no way a simple pull of gravity would cause a loud crash and smashing a frame to pieces. She knelt down and picked it up to examine it, being careful to avoid the shards of glass. It was the framed photo that apparently Mike’s grandfather had taken. “Shame. It was the only Mike Warren thing in this room.” Jenny glanced over at him and saw him struggling with a band aid. Rolling her eyes, she ripped from his hand and helped him. 

“Now, I guess I have to start back over.” He joked lightly, hoping she would push further. 

It didn’t work. “Mike, you know… I have a pretty big bullshit detector, and right now, it is going off like a banshee.” As she handed the band aid back to him, she stared bullets at him. Purposefully, he tried to focus at his finger and avoid her beading gaze. “I know that for some reason you feel like you can’t trust anyone here… But I hope that I’ve proven myself to be trustworthy at least. I am on your side, you know.”

“I know you’re on my side,” He assured her. “It’s just… complicated.”

“Yeah, it’s super complicated when you try to keep it inside.”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“Then, make me.” She moved a little closer to him and tried to make her voice as gentle as possible. Her hand rested on his arm for added measure. “I am trying to understand what’s rolling around in that big fat head of yours, but I can’t unless you tell me.” 

Mike opened his mouth but closed it quickly after. Where would he even start? How could he explain his whole investigation? All the lying and sneaking around, it had piled into a mountain. Even if he did know the right words, would she understand? Well, definitely not after what they had done earlier.

It was clear that he wasn’t willing to talk. Frustration washed over Jenny as she bit the inside of her cheek. “Okay, or don’t.” She backed up slowly. “Don’t let me get in the way of your mysterious complicated, because clearly,” She gestured to the fallen frame. “You are doing just fine on your own.” Finally, Jenny stomped out of his room. It was unbelievable to her that he was still so withholding. It’s not like expected him to be an open book after sleeping together, but she thought that it might have changed something. If anything, he seemed to be a little more on edge. Maybe things weren’t that great between them as she thought. 

>>>

“Fred, seriously. Will you answer a freakin’ phone call just once? I’m tired of talking to your voicemail. Look, if you flake out on me, you can forget your compensation. And you know what… if you don’t answer me within the next 24 hours, I’m hunting you down myself. Call. Me. Back. Walsh.”


	12. Shatter

“Okay, showtime.” Jenny addressed her small van full of agents. They were stationed at their surveillance spot just beyond Bello’s safe house. Mike was driving in just then, delivering Bello’s lunch to him. “Walters, how’s the street lookin’?”

“Just like Maple Street, boss,” He replied from his sentry position in the driver’s seat. 

“Graham, we good on visuals on the house itself?”

“Indeed, we do.”

“Thomas, you got your hearing aids on?”

“Loud and clear.”

Jenny settled into a spot in between Graham and Thomas. The van was pretty small, so they didn’t have a lot of wiggle room. She had a large soda from the nearest gas station to sip on while she headed the operations. Looking on the monitors in front of her, she could see Mike getting out of the car, bag of Chinese food in one hand. “I wish I had a nice place like Bello’s got,” She pondered aloud. “I like all those big windows with the big trees in front for privacy.” 

“Not me,” Graham shook his head. “I want one of those tiny houses.” 

“Dude, you can’t be serious,” Walters glanced in his rearview mirror at him. 

“I am! I don’t need ten bedrooms and seventeen and a half bathrooms. Just a quaint little place for me and my cat, Rex.”

“I would hate that.” Thomas chimed in. He was the quietest of the group and wore earbuds to help closely listen in on the conversations Bello and Mike were having. But he always wore just one in his ear, that way he could hear if Jenny was asking him a question. “I think I would feel too claustrophobic.” 

“Says the guy squeezed into a van with three people,” Jenny joked. She had enjoyed getting to know her small team. One thing about running surveillance was that there was a lot of sitting and doing nothing. In order to pass the time, they would talk about anything or play games to help keep them awake. Yes, they would still listen and watch Bello’s house, but they had to amuse themselves somehow. 

“All I’m saying is I want my space.” Thomas said with a chuckle. “But nothing fancy. Something practical for me and the missus.” 

Graham looked over at him. “Would the missus agree with your practical dream house?”

Thomas winced. “No, she’d want a Beverly Hills mansion. We have very differing tastes.”

“What about you, Walters?” Jenny asked. “What’s your dream home?”

“I either want an actual tree house in the middle of a wooded area or one of those cave homes. I saw this one TV show that showed this place in Australia. They literally carved their home into a mountain side. That would be awesome.” 

“I didn’t realize you were such a Bear Grylls, Walters,” It was now Graham’s turn to joke. “I think you’re in the wrong career. You oughtta be a Marine or something.” 

“Nah, Bureau pays better.” They all laughed and comfortable silence fell among them. 

Mike was trying to convince Bello to give up some information about Odin. But Bello was not being as cooperative as they wanted. “Why is this guy so protective of Odin?” Jenny asked the air. “He refuses to give up one thing about him, even to Mike.”

“Maybe they’re related.” Graham suggested. 

“Maybe they’re in love,” added Walters. 

“Or maybe he’s way more loyal than we give him credit for.” Jenny shook her head, taking a long sip of soda. She had been trying to crack this Odin case wide open for weeks now, and she was no closer to finding out his true identity than she was when she started. It was slowly starting to eat away at her. 

The day dragged on, no suspicious movement or talk. When Mike and Bello were discussing their favorite western movies, Jenny received a call. When she looked at the screen, it read Fred Walsh. Instantly, she bolted up. “Uh, guys, I gotta take this.” She went to open the door and shuffled around Thomas.

“Whoa, boss, you can’t just…” Walters tried to stop her. 

“Do your job, man,” She spat at him before closing the door. Quickly, she answered the phone, leaning on the side of the van. “Fred, thank god. I was beginning to think…” 

“Hi, Jenny.” The voice on the other end was not Fred’s. 

“Martha?” 

“Um…” By the sounds of her voice, it sounded like she was crying. Or at least trying to stop herself from crying. 

“What’s wrong? Where’s Fred?” Jenny’s stomach twisted in anticipation.

A muffled sob came through. “Oh, Jenny, he’s… he’s…” 

No, no, no. This can’t be happening. “Martha, I need you to use your words. What happened to Fred?” 

“He’s dying,” came the reply. Now, Fred’s wife was letting the words flow from her mouth. “His tumor flared up a couple weeks ago and he’s been in and out of chemo and surgeries since. But they just told me… they say he might not last the week.” 

Guilt was not unfamiliar to Jenny at this point. For one, she had been sneaking around behind her brother’s back, suspecting him of lying to her and to his housemates. But now, there was more guilt consuming her than she had previously thought possible. “Why are you calling me, then?” She asked. 

“Well… he’s asked for you. And I can see that you’ve been calling him a lot.” 

“Which hospital are you at?” 

“St. Joseph’s, the one off West Palm.” 

“Good, I’m close by, anyway. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” Jenny quickly hung up the phone and climbed back into the van, leaving the door open. “Okay, gents. It’s been swell, but something has just come up and I need to run.” 

“Run?” Thomas asked, as all three of them gave their leader inquisitive looks. “You can’t just run from a surveillance op.”

“Watch me.” She had made several mistakes in her lifetime. Maybe she could set one thing right with Fred. “If this was not important, I would not be doing this. Until I get back, Thomas, you’re in charge. If anything changes, you call me immediately. Radio for back-up if you need it. Ta-ta for now.” In a flash, she hopped back out of the van and walked briskly towards where she had hidden her car down the street. She glanced around to make sure no one was following her or seeing her flee the scene. 

What she didn’t see, due to her emotional state, was a crouched figure, hiding behind one of the parked cars. He had been slowly approaching, when he saw a woman hop out of a cable van. Very quickly, he had ducked out her line of vision, while she answered a call. After she ended it, she opened the doors and talked to those inside. The man dared himself to peek around the car he hid behind and saw that what looked like a simple cable repair van was all set up inside with surveillance equipment. Monitors and men were hidden inside. They were going to create a problem for him. Once the woman left, he stayed low until she was out of his line of vision. Briefly, he thought of going after her, just for fun. But she was not the one he was after. And from what he could tell, she had not seen him. After she rounded the corner, the man stood up, tying a bandana around his face and withdrawing a gun from his pocket. As he stepped onto the street towards the van, the sound of rattling keys echoed over the quiet street. 

>>>

Jenny made it to the hospital and frantically searched every room she could find until she finally stumbled upon the room containing Fred and Martha Walsh. She stood in the door and looked in, her stomach dropping to the floor. 

Fred was lying in a hospital bed, hooked up to different machines, wires all around him. He looked paler than the sheets he laid on. His eyes were closed, as Martha stood by his side clutching his hand tightly. The only sound in the room was the soft beeping of the machines Fred was hooked up to and Martha’s subtle sobs. “Oh, my God.” Jenny gasped, slowly entering the room. 

Martha turned and forced a gentle smile on her face. “Jenny, you made it.” She greeted kindly. Now, Jenny could see that her wrinkled grey eyes were still stained with tears. 

“Of course.” She placed a hand on the old woman’s shoulder. Then, she turned her focus down at the pale unconscious man below her. “How is he?”

“Resting.” Martha reached and gently petted his silver hair. “He’s been up most of the night, so I’m glad he can have this time now.” 

“Fred, if you can hear me,” Jenny leaned over and whispered softly. “It’s Jenny. I’m here, okay?” The man stirred a little but didn’t wake. She then turned to address his wife again. “When did his tumor act up? I saw him just a couple of weeks ago and he was fine.” 

“It was very sudden.” Martha nodded, lowering her gaze to the floor. “We were just cooking dinner when he collapsed on the kitchen floor. The way he fell… I knew… It was so awful, Jenny.” More tears spilled from her eyes. Jenny gently threw her arms around her, trying to provide some comfort at least. 

She had known the couple for a few years now. Martha and Fred had always seemed to be the perfect couple to her. Back when Fred had asked for a favor from Jenny, she was more than willing to help. He had apparently sired a son with a woman from the Middle East back when he was in the CIA. He had received a letter, but wanted to know where the woman was, which was where Jenny came in. She had helped him reunite with his estranged son and his mother, even helping cover his tracks. Fred never wanted Martha to find out, so it wouldn’t break her heart. And because of her expertise, Jenny had made sure she would never find out. Even if Fred had died. Now here he laid, dying in front of them. 

“I’m truly sorry, Martha.” Jenny could only whisper. She was trying not to cry, hoping to be the “strong” one, but feared if she moved to suddenly, she would follow right behind Martha. 

“Oh,” Martha broke away from her suddenly and moved to the chair behind them. Fred’s jacket was hung on the back of it, which his wife was now feeling around it for something. “He wanted you to have something… Ah, yes.” Jenny watched as she pulled a blue USB drive from one of the pockets and held it out to her. A physical reminder of her betrayal. “He said he borrowed this from you. Don’t know what it is, but…” The old woman placed in gently in Jenny’s hands. 

“Thank you,” She forced out, keeping her eyes fixed on the drive. If Fred had collapsed right around when she had given it to him, then chances were, he hadn’t done any digging on Paul. Of course, that was not the focus right then.

Suddenly, her phone rang, almost making her drop her phone. Jenny quickly apologized and excused herself to the hallway. Paul was calling her. Speak of the devil. “Hello?” She tried her best not to sound emotional. 

“Jenny, are you alright? Where are you?” His voice sounded frantic. “Tell me where you are.”

“Whoa, whoa, calm down. What’s wrong?”

“Jennifer, I need to know where you are.” Jenny swallowed hard. He rarely called her by her full name. This couldn’t be good. 

“I’m at St. Joe’s Hospital. Now what’s going on?” 

Paul breathed a sigh. “Jangles. He was here.” 

She felt as though the air left her lungs. “What? What do you mean here? Where are you?” 

“Jangles found out where Bello was hiding.” 

Again, deep dread seeped into her stomach like a leaking pipe. “What happened, Paul?” 

“He shot everyone,” He explained. “Graham, Walters, and Thomas. They’re all dead.” 

Jenny slumped against a wall, feeling the full brunt of the situation. Her team. Gone. They were alive only a half an hour ago. And the one time she leaves them, they get shot. But another person crept into her mind. “What about Mike?” 

“He was stabbed, but alive. The ambulance is just leaving.” Paul lowered the phone to his chest, and addressed the paramedics wheeling him in. “Hey, I’m hitching a ride with you, now get this tin can moving pronto!” The siren sounded as they pulled onto the street, Mike laid unconscious on the gurney. Paul brought the phone back to his ear. “We’re heading to you now. I’ll see you in a bit.” The call ended. 

>>>

Four hours. Four hours of Jenny pacing the waiting room of the ER, verbally assaulting nurses to give her an update. Four hours of Paul sitting unmoving from one of the chairs, his focus on the floor. After four hours, a doctor finally came and told them that Mike was out of surgery and was resting comfortably. 

At long last, Jenny and Paul were able to go see him. They saw him sleeping in his hospital bed. He wasn’t as pale as Fred Walsh was, but it was unusual to see the rookie look so helpless. When she saw him laying there, Jenny finally allowed herself to cry. Cry for Fred, for Graham, Thomas, and Walters, for everything. “Oh, Mike,” She rushed to his side and grabbed a hold of his hand. He did not stir. “I’m so sorry, Mike.” A tear dropped onto the blankets below. Guilt and shame overtook her. Maybe if she hadn’t run off to the hospital, her team might still be alive. Maybe Mike didn’t have to get stabbed. 

After they both had paid their respects, Paul pulled Jenny out into the hallway. When he closed the door to Mike’s room, he stood before Jenny with his arms crossed. “Do you want to explain to me what the hell happened today?” 

Jenny, her eyes still wet, looked up at her brother in confusion. “What?” 

“Explain to me why you were not at your post, Jennifer.” He demanded, letting anger weave into his tone. “Why were you at the hospital? What was so important that you abandoned your men in the field?” 

“Paul, I don’t need to point out to you that now might not be the best time to have this conversation,” She countered, wiping away the lingering tears. 

“Do you realize how worried I was?” Paul questioned. “Do you know how much terror I felt when I got to that van and found three dead bodies in there and my little sister was nowhere in sight? I mean, Jesus, I thought Jangles had…” 

“I’m sorry, okay? You don’t think I feel like absolute shit right now? I made a bad call and I will bear that burden for the rest of my life, thank you very much.” 

“Why were you here already? Did you know that it was going to end up here?” 

“Oh, my God, Paul! No, I had no idea. I'm not part of a conspiracy. How could I know such a thing?”

“Then, tell me…” 

“Fred Walsh is dying, okay?” 

Paul closed his mouth for a moment. He had never met the Walsh's, but he knew what they meant to Jenny. “What?” 

“He’s been battling this tumor in his brain for the past twenty years and right now the tumor is winning. He was apparently asking for me, so I came to pay my respects…” Jenny lowered her gaze. “I wanted to try and put things right for once. And then…” She gestured through the window, looking at the sleeping Mike again. Tears threatened to return. 

“I’m sorry.” Paul stated with as little sympathy the human anatomy could allow. 

Jenny turned and looked her brother in the eye. “No, you’re not. You’re still mad at me for leaving.” 

“Yeah, I guess I am, Jenny.” He stepped a little closer to her, fire ablaze in his brown eyes. “I wonder why I feel that way.” 

Jenny didn’t back down. “I’m not exactly sure. Are you mad to me for getting my team killed or because I might have influenced your chances of getting at Jangles?” 

Briggs felt the sting of her words but tried to recover. “Is that what you think this is about?”

“Isn’t it?” She challenged. “Mike has been begging you to bring in Bello for days now, and you have refused because you wanted Jangles. You wanted to get the boogeyman that’s been haunting you for years now. Admit it.” 

“Well, it appears that you have everything figured out then, huh?” He held up his hand and backed up slowly. “Mike’s unconscious in the other room and you think it’s my fault. I don’t have to sit here and take this.” He turned on his heels and stormed out of the hospital, leaving Jenny feeling a mess of emotions. 

She went back in Mike’s room and slumped down onto one of the chairs. Again, she felt herself crying. How? Hadn’t she been crying enough today? But still the tears fell, and Jenny felt like the worst person alive. It was her fault that Mike was hurt. It was her fault that her team was gone. It was her fault that Jangles had gotten away. It was her fault that Briggs was distancing himself from her. 

He slept for two hours. The rest of the housemates came by to drop off flowers and get well balloons for him. Even DJ, the “grumpy Gus” of the group, came by and gave the sleeping Mike a firm pat on the shoulder. But they were also still working cases so they couldn’t stay for long. Jenny refused to leave, feeling that someone had to be there when he woke up. 

Suddenly, she heard a stir. Lifting her head, she saw Mike moving and blinking his eyes open slowly. Jenny got to her feet and moved closer to him. “Hey,” She greeted softly, as he groggily moaned awake. “There’s those blue eyes.” A small smile formed over her face. At least he was still alive. Mike grimaced in pain and reached to find the button to give him the morphine he was hooked up to. Jenny gently guided the remote to his hands. “There you go. Doctors say you weren’t dinged up too bad. You’ll be out of here in no time.”

“Will they serve me breakfast?” He asked, his speech still slurred as he shook the slumber off. 

Jenny bit her lip. “It’s 5 pm, Mike. You’re missing happy hour.” 

Mike finally was able to fully open his eyes and take in the room around him. His blue eyes fell on the table of presents. “I assume the bear’s from Johnny.” He nodded towards the stuffed bear staring back at him. 

Jenny allowed a weak chuckle escape from her. “Yeah, he told me not to let you shoot it. And I’m guessing that’s an in-joke that I don’t understand.” 

He smiled weakly. But then he turned back to face her. “There’s only stuff from you guys? There’s nothing there from the Bureau or anonymous or anything like that.”

She gave him a curious look. “Um, no, I don’t think so… why?” He closed his eyes again and tried to control his breathing. “Mike, talk to me.” Jenny rubbed her knuckles on his arm encouragingly. “What’s wrong?” 

“We all lie for the job.” He replied. Maybe it was the morphine or the open wound in his stomach. Maybe it was Jenny. But something about this moment felt like a good time to talk. “You guys… you can all relax and be yourself at Graceland. I can’t.”

“Why?” She pressed gently. 

“Because I was placed in Graceland to investigate Briggs.” He stated, staring up at the ceiling. Jenny felt her heart stop. How many more surprises was she going to get today? “And now this… is just all…” 

“You’re a rat?” Jenny gasped, feeling more tears form on her face. 

Mike looked back at her. “No, I’m not a rat. I just… I was…” 

Jenny backed away. “You’re ratting out my brother?”

“No,” He felt panic rise in him. The machine monitoring his heart rate sped up in response. “I just wanted to tell someone who I could trust… And I trust you, Jenn…” 

“Is that why you slept with me? To get information?”

“No, Jenny. I really just needed to tell someone because I can’t do this anymore” He could hear his voice break but didn’t care. 

“I can’t, Mike.” She shook her head violently. There had been way too much happening that day and this was the last straw. “I can’t do this. I need to go.” 

“No, please, Jenny. Don’t go. Please!” But she was already out the door.


	13. Breathe

Jenny sat on the beach, watching the waves roll in and out, crashing on the beach. Seagulls dipped and dived overheard, searching for any sign of discarded food left behind by careless beachgoers. A gentle breeze pushed salty air into her lungs, the sun rested high in the sky. She tried to get the image of her dead team members out her brain. Or Fred Walsh. Or Mike. But they kept haunting her, staring straight back at her through her memory. Blaming her for everything she had done wrong. 

“Hey, kiddo.” Charlie sat down next to Jenny, who barely registered her presence. “What you got rolling around in there?” She played with Jenny’s long brown hair affectionately, as it danced in the wind. 

“So many things.” She answered in a monotone voice. Her gaze was still fixed out at the sea, almost as if she was entranced by it. 

“Mind sharing with the class?”

Jenny solemnly shook her head. She didn’t want to talk to anyone. Afraid that if she started talking then everything would pour out of her. She wondered what it would take for her to be able to transform into a seagull or even a mermaid. 

“What happened to your team wasn’t your fault.” Charlie told her. “I don’t care what anyone says.”

“If I had been there…”

“If you had been there, you would be dead, too. Besides, you said a friend of yours was dying?” Jenny gave her a look, silently asking her how she knew. “I might have wrestled it out of Paul.” 

Jenny rolled her eyes at the mention of her brother’s name. “Did he also tell you that I’m the one who let Mike get stabbed and let Jangles get away?” 

“Don’t you listen to that bullshit,” Charlie grabbed her face and forced her to look at her. “That’s all that talk is. Bullshit. You couldn’t have done anything, even if you tried.” 

Jenny yanked her head out of Charlie’s grip. “Now that’s bullshit.” She seethed. “I’m just some helpless little damsel in distress? I couldn’t have taken down a murderer or saved Mike?”

“That’s not what I’m saying, Jenn. These men that we are going up against; they are prime assholes. They would have hurt you just as much as they did Mike, and maybe even worse. I, for one, am glad you escaped unharmed.” 

“Escaped?” She laughed bitterly. “I fully walked out. I abandoned my post. By choice.”

“And what, you think I haven’t made choices that I don’t regret?” Charlie challenged. “You think the choices I’ve made haven’t led to utter disasters? Of course I have, plenty of times. But I don’t let that get me down. I don’t let them stop me from getting the bastards.”

Jenny picked up handfuls of sand and slowly let them fall back down to the ground absentmindedly. “It’s all just so messed up.” 

“Yeah, no shit. But, hey, Mikey’s alive. That’s a good thing, right?”

She looked out at the sea again, thinking about his admission that he was investigating Paul. She couldn’t tell anyone else in the house. Not Charlie. They had enough to deal with at that moment. Would it have been better if Mike had died? “I guess.” She said vaguely.

“I know that you like him, kiddo.” Charlie brushed a wild strand of hair out of her face. “I know I was teasing you guys before, but you two got something special. I can tell. Don’t let something as stupid as this get in the way of that. You two are some of the toughest and smartest people I know. If anyone can bounce back from this, you guys can.” 

Jenny turned back again and gave Charlie a weak smile. It didn’t erase all of the negativity she felt, but she always felt at least a little better talking to Charlie. “Thanks, Mama.” 

“Anytime, baby. Come here.” She pulled her close, tucking her head under her chin. 

“Promise me, we’ll get those sons of bitches and make them pay.” Jenny mumbled into Charlie’s shoulder.

Now it was Charlie’s turn to stare out at the ocean and watched the waves crash. “I promise.”

>>>

The next day, Johnny was buzzing about DJ’s birthday that was happening that weekend. He had practically pounded down Jenny’s door, asking for him to help her brainstorm ideas. Because it got him out of her room, she reluctantly agreed. Mike had still been in the hospital, recovering from his stabbing, much to her relief. She needed to sort through her feelings for him anyway. 

“Hey, Jenn!” She heard Johnny call up the stairs. “Downstairs, pronto! Andale, hermana!” 

Rolling her eyes, she stomped down the stairs, not caring that she was still wearing her pajamas. “Johnny, if you are going to demand my help, you are not going to boss me…“ She stopped on the middle landing when she saw a familiar form standing in the entryway. Mike, standing at an angle that favored his injured side and wearing sweatpants and hoodie. An unusual sight to see him in. 

“Hi,” He offered sheepishly. The pained look in his eye was unmistakable. It was clear that he was still in a lot of pain. But he felt better keeping an eye on things in the house, versus driving himself crazy in a hospital bed.

Their last encounter still was fresh in her mind. But she didn’t want to make a scene in front of Johnny. “I thought you were supposed to be out for a couple of days.” She replied, while sending him daggers with just her eyes. 

“Checked myself out early.” Mike replied. “Against doctor’s wishes.” 

“You shouldn’t be here.” She said. Mike gave her look, scared of what she meant. “You should be in bed.” 

“Yeah, so I’m thinking strippers.” Johnny interjected, clearly not getting the subtext happening in front of him. “Like a whole bunch of strippers, right? He’s gonna flip.” 

“Well, it sounds like you got things figured out, Johnny.” Jenny nodded. “But I do have some work I gotta do so…” She quickly retreated back to her room. 

“Oh, don’t be like that, Jenny!” Johnny called after her. “Jenny!” The sound of a door shutting made him hang in his head in defeat. “Women.” He grunted. 

“Hey, Johnny, did she say anything to you?” Mike asked, still looking towards the stairs. 

“About what?” He asked innocently. Then, he saw the look on Mike’s face. “Oh, are you…”

Mike quickly shook his head. “No, never mind.”

“Dirty little dog.” He teased, retreating to the kitchen, ready to scheme some more about DJ’s birthday. 

>>>

As soon as she heard the house was clear, Jenny finally exited the sanctuary of her bedroom. She hadn’t eaten yet, and her stomach was beginning to sound like a grizzly. Still, when she descended the stairs, her eyes scanned around to make sure Mike was not there. No sign of life yet. She slipped into the kitchen to find Paul sitting at the table, looking up at her from a plate of food. Her feet planted into the ground as she stared back at him, remembering the last time they talked. 

“Hey, Jenny.” He offered peacefully. Even added a smile for good measure. 

“Don’t you try to butter me up.” Jenny spat back, sifting through the cupboards. “I’m still very mad at you for what you said to me at the hospital.”

“Listen, I’m sorry, okay? I was just upset over all that happened, and I let my anger get the better of me. I’m sorry, Jenn.” 

She stopped searching the cabinets and looked at him, searching for any hidden meanings or teasing. But he was being honest. For once. “You’re serious?”

“What’s so hard about me apologizing?”

“Well, let’s just say it’s a rare occurrence.” She finally stumbled upon Johnny’s box of Lucky Charms and thought that she would get back at him for rudely waking her up that morning. “And if you start going off on all your karma mumbo-jumbo, I am walking away. I respect your beliefs, but I am not letting you convert me.” 

Paul watched his sister move around the kitchen. He had so much he wanted to tell her. Confess all of his sins. Tell her about what happened that night before… But would she be able to carry his burden? She already knew too much. “Do you want to join me for some quality bro-sis time?” He gestured toward the table. 

She remained silent as she poured her cereal and milk into a bowl. Part of her wanted to accept his offer. Part of her wanted that more than anything, to be brother and sister again, back to the way things were. But she knew if she did, she might end up telling him about Mike’s investigation. Or her hiring Fred Walsh. “No, I can’t. I’m sorry. I just got all these files to look over, and I’ve been getting a whole bunch of job requests lately. They’re starting to pile up.” 

Paul rose up from the table and started to clean up his plate in the sink, trying to hide the disappointment in his face. “I understand. Gotta earn that paycheck, right?”

“Yeah, I guess.” She put the milk and cereal back in their appropriate places and found a spoon. Almost afraid to, she asked, “Have you seen Mike?”

He raised his head to look off in the distance. “Um, yeah. He’s really got a nasty little cut.”

“Where is he now?” She asked, still scanning the room, hoping not to run into him. “Don’t tell me he actually went back to the hospital?” 

Her brother faced her, a concerned look on his face. “Don’t be mad.”

She put down the bowl of cereal and put her hands on her hips. “What.” She demanded. 

“Charlie thought if he went under in prison, we could get Bello to talk.” 

“He’s in jail?” Jenny asked incredulously. “You let the guy who is literally busting at the seams go into a federal prison?!”

“It wasn’t my idea.” He tried to calm her down. “I tried to talk him out of it, but Charlie insisted, and Mike agreed.”

Jenny shook her head and jutted out her jaw. Well, at least she wouldn’t have to see him around the house for a while. But still, the thought of him in a jail cell was enough to make her want to march down there and pull him out. No matter how she might have felt about him and how many lies he may have told, he didn’t deserve that. “You gonna make sure nothing happens to him?” She challenged her brother. 

“He’s in a single cell and only is allowed out of it one hour a day, not including when he gets visitors. Guards are literally everywhere. He’ll be fine.” Paul rubbed her arm soothingly. “If you’re really that worried about him, you can always go visit him, you know.” 

She grabbed her bowl again. “Whatever. If you need me, I’ll be in my room.”

“Okay. I love you.” 

Jenny stopped in her tracks and shot her brother an inquisitive look. “What?”

“I love you.” Paul looked at her curiously. “What’s wrong with that?”

“Well, I don’t know, Paul. Maybe because this happy big brother routine is a big contrast from the last time we spoke.”

“I already told you I was sorry. I’m just trying to make things right.” 

Jenny studied him like a textbook. This was the first time he had shown her affection in a long time. Something was gnawing away at her, sensing that there was more of a reason why he was being so nice. “Well, obviously, I love you, too. You dumbass.” She slipped back upstairs without another word.


	14. Feelers

A knock on Jenny’s door made her jump slightly. She was sitting at her desk, sifting through files on her computer. Johnny’s head poked through the door. “Yo, you got a second?”

She rolled her eyes. “What do you want, Johnny?”

He leapt into the room and showed her a flier in his hands. “So, I need a second opinion for Jakes’ party. This castle can fit 10 people, but this other one can fit 12.” 

“Do you not have work to do?” She asked him, lowering her laptop screen. “Aren’t there piles of cases that you need to complete stacked in your bedroom?”

“Yes, but I’m ignoring it.”

“Well, I wish you would give me the same treatment. Now get out.”

“Hey, I need your help. You said you would help me.”

“Yeah, because you practically busted down my door at 8 in the morning. I would have agreed to manslaughter if it meant getting you out of my room. Now, unlike you, I have an enormous amount of work to do that can’t be ignored.” She opened up the screen again and began typing, hoping that would be enough to get him out.

Johnny sank down on her bed across from her. “You and Mike are acting funny.” 

Jenny’s fingers paused and hovered above the keys. “Is that a question?”

“Question is: why?”

Rolling her eyes and keeping her focus on the screen, she said, “We’re just having issues. That’s all.” She still hadn’t told anybody about Mike’s investigation. Nor had she disclosed their sort of romantic entanglement that happened right before he got stabbed. Johnny would not be able to keep a secret that big, and she did not want to make matters worse in the house.

Johnny watched her closely, unable to help himself from being curious. “You’re having issues with Mike? How can you have issues with Mike? Mike is like an inoffensive jello. And there’s always room for jello.” He flashed her a wink. 

“Johnny, I’m busy, okay. Besides, I don’t know why you’re so excited to surprise Jakes. He hates birthdays.”

“Yeah, he doesn’t like anything. And that’s the point. We need some cheer in this house. Too much shit has been happening.”

“Yeah, like Mike almost getting gutted by a Caza hitman?” 

“That, and the fact that you two are…” 

“Johnny,” She slammed the laptop closed and flashed him a wild look. “You need to learn how to mind your own business.” 

“Oh, come on!” He whined. “Something is clearly going on with you two. I’m not judging by the way. I fully support it. All I want is the juicy deets.” 

“I am not doing anything to satiate your perverted mind.” She slumped back in her chair and sighed deeply. “If I help you pick out a bounce house, will you promise to leave me alone?”

“On the Jakes thing, yes.” He gave her a playful smile. “On the Mike thing, not a chance.” 

Jenny held out her hand to look at the flier that he was holding. She quickly scanned over the options. “12-person bouncy castle. Obviously.” 

He jumped up and down excitedly. “Yes, yes, yes! Thank you.” He went over to place a kiss on her forehead, but she backed away before he could get close enough.

“Not on your life.” She shooed him away. 

“Why? Because I’m not Mikey?”

“Get out!” She picked up a nearby flip flop and tossed it at him, as he retreated towards the door, giggling like a child. 

“You’re the best, Jenn!’ He called over his shoulder. 

Once she was alone, Jenny cradled her face in her hands. This whole thing with Mike was beginning to turn her into a cranky bitch. On any other day, she would have loved to help Johnny scheme against Dale, knowing how much he would hate it. But there was too much happening for her to pretend like everything was okay. 

Slowly, she opened her laptop again. On the screen was security footage she had gained access to from the prison where Mike was. She clicked on one window to enlarge it, seeing Mike gingerly walk around in the yard. Why was she so concerned with checking up on him? She should hate his guts for lying to her, for using her. 

Her eyes fell to the right of her computer where the blue USB drive she had given Fred Walsh sat. She picked it up and fiddled with it in her hands as she thought. Chances were Fred hadn’t found anything on Paul before he collapsed. She couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed that she was no closer to finding out what Paul was up to than she was before. Her eyes looked back at the screen, where Mike was now chatting with Bello. Maybe… she could get back at him. And use him for her own purposes.

>>>

Jenny found herself in the living room, on the phone with a French dignitary. He had called her about tracking some payments internationally, which she was able to help with. That was one thing that she could do in her sleep. It was a welcomed change from thinking about Odin or Mike. 

“Oui,” She spoke into the phone as Dale Jakes entered the room. He waved at her while she held up a finger for him. “Oui, je suis tres intelligente, non? Alors, a bientot!” She hung up then, and greeted Jakes with a friendly smile. “Well, there he is. I haven’t seen your face in a while. You hard at work or are you just plain avoiding me?” 

“I have been neck-deep in this bird shit,” He answered sliding down onto the couch a couple cushions away from her. “But I think it’s wrapping itself up soon.” 

“Well, I miss seeing your smiling face every day.” She pouted her lips teasingly. 

He smirked for a second, but it quickly went away. “Tell me the truth, is Johnny planning something for my birthday?” 

“Wow, that’s blunt.” Jenny joked. “What makes you think…”

“Because he has as much subtlety as an elephant.” He replied, his voice almost robotic. “Did he tell you what he did for me last year?” She shook her head. “He hired a bunch of clowns to jump out and surprise me.” 

“Aren’t you scared of clowns?”

“I’m not scared, okay? I just watched ‘It’ way too young, so they… disturb me.” Jenny tried to muffle a laugh but was very unsuccessful. But Jakes was not as amused. “Let me ask this again, what is he planning for my birthday?” 

“Well, I don’t think it’s clowns.” She replied, still smiling. “Why not go and ask him yourself?”

“I plan on it. I was just hoping that you would be able to give me information that would help justify my paranoia.” He gestured to her computer sitting in her lap. 

“Oh, no. I am not going to get in the middle of this.” Jenny held her laptop close to her chest protectively. “I won’t let you use my powers for evil.”

“Okay, thanks anyway,” Jakes grunted sarcastically.

“You need to stop being so grumpy, Dale. He just wants to put a smile on that pretty little face of yours.” 

“Fine, I’ll go see for myself.” He rose from the couch, ready to beat Johnny to dust. 

“Hey, Dale. What is it with you and birthdays anyway?” She asked.

His movements paused as he turned back to face her again. “I just don’t care for them.” 

“Does it have anything to do with your family?” Her gaze on him held steady, showing all the sympathy she could towards him. 

Jakes locked his jaw. “What?” 

Jenny rolled her eyes. “Okay, you ask me to look into that one guy, Derek, a while ago, and when I saw that he had a wife and kid, I thought there was something familiar about the kid. So a little digging and I found…” 

He slammed his foot on the ground and pointed at her menacingly. “You had no right to…” 

“He looks like you, you know.” Jenny was not willing to back down. It was clear that he was hurting, but she wanted to help him. Maybe she could actually bring someone some peace for once. “And he’s a real cutie. And his mom, she’s a real looker. I can see why you fell for her.”

Jakes stomped over and towered over her, anger burning through his corneas. “Jennifer, you do not get to go rummaging around my life.” He spoke in a very low and menacing tone. “That was completely uncalled for.” 

She looked up at him, trying not to show fear. Dale wasn’t normally a happy, upbeat guy, but he was never this level of angry. This was a new version of him, like Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. “I’m sorry, Dale.” She told him. “I just thought…” 

“You don’t think. That’s not your job. And you don’t get to tell anyone about this, you hear me?” He turned on his heels and stalked away. Some part of him felt bad for being so angry with her. He knew that she was coming from a good place. But still, his family was private, no one was supposed to know about them. “Oh, and tell Johnny to stop whatever he’s planning.” He called over his shoulder. 

>>>

Paige and Jenny were hanging out on the couch again, flipping through channels. Johnny was roaming around the room with measuring tape, muttering to himself. 

“Do we dare ask?” Paige whispered to Jenny, nodding towards him. 

“At your own peril.” She joked, continuing to flip through the channels in search of anything entertaining. 

“I’m very sorry to ask you this,” Johnny came over and held out the end of his measuring tape to Paige. “But can you hold the tip of my measuring stick?”

“Johnny,” Jenny scolded him as Paige pushed him away. 

“No, for real.” He insisted. “This is not sexual at all. Just hold the tip of it.” 

“What are you doing?” Paige dared to ask. 

“I’m measuring dimensions.” He replied, focused on measuring various angles around the room. 

“Johnny, I’m pretty sure that bounce houses are meant to be an outdoor activity,” She jabbed at him. 

Jenny rolled her eyes. “Oh, god that’s what this is about?” 

“Are you sure?” Johnny challenged Paige. “Are you sure? Because I’m about to blow your freakin’ mind.”

“You’re about to blow something,” Jenny muttered, causing Paige to laugh. 

“Paul, where the hell is Briggs?” Charlie stormed into the house, eyes searching the room like crazy. All three of them looked and could tell from her body language that something serious had happened.

“I don’t know,” Johnny shrugged. “What’s up?”

“Paul?” She shouted up the stairs. Out of the corner of her eye, Jenny saw someone else walk through the front door. 

“Mike?” Jenny stood up, surprised to see him. He was supposed to still be in jail. But then she noticed the way he was walking, slower and carefully, his left hand covering his stab wound. The look on his face was pale and twisted in pain. 

“Are you okay?” Paige asked moving towards him. 

“I’m fine, I just need to…” Mike then crumbled to the ground. Without thinking, Paige and Jenny ran towards him to help him to his feet. They each took a hold of one arm and hoisted him back up. 

“Charlie, what happened?” Paige asked, as the two of them moved him towards the couch. 

“He’s fine,” She insisted, then turning back around calling out Paul’s name. 

“Yeah, perfectly fine,” Jenny muttered sarcastically. She asked him. “Are you okay?” All he could do was grunt in pain. 

“Chuckie, stop yelling.” Paul’s voice came floating down the stairs with him. “My ears work faster than my legs.” Once he reached the bottom, his eyes fell on the man being escorted to the couch by Paige and Jenny. “Whoa, whoa, Mike, you are unwell, my friend.” 

“Johnny, clear the pillows,” Jenny motioned for him to get the throw pillows out of their way so they could lay him down flat. He nodded and moved quickly. 

“The guards let Bello come in,” Charlie explained, her mouth moving a mile a minute. “And he just came in and started attacking Mike. It had to be an Odin thing, because nobody showed up for the visitation.” 

“Charlie, pause.” Briggs cut her off, moving towards where Mike was now fully laying down on the couch. Jenny moved to place a pillow under his head. 

“Thanks,” He mumbled, still clearly in pain. 

“What were you thinking?” She whispered back to him as she knelt by his head. 

“I’m sorry.” Jenny wasn’t sure what he was specifically apologizing for, but it was hard to focus on anything at the moment other than easing his pain.

“You were right. We should have never let him go in…” Charlie, who was just now, letting herself react to the whole situation, regret overrunning her. 

“Yeah, you think?” Paul asked sarcastically. He leaned over and placed a hand on his leg. “Tora, tora, tora, huh, Mikey?”

“Paige, go get him some water or something.” Jenny told her, not wanting to leave his side. Sure, she was still mad at him, but she didn’t want him to bleed out in their living room. 

“Yeah, but Mike,” Johnny spoke timidly. “I gotta move the couch…”

“Johnny,” Jenny and Paige snapped at him simultaneously. Paige, who was now standing, gave him a threatening look. 

“I can put it somewhere else.” He conceded.

Just then, Mike’s phone started to ring. He reached into his pocket and looked at it. “It’s the Bureau.” Jenny scoffed as he went to answer. “Hello? Now? No, no, I’ll be there soon, sir.” He hung up the phone and moaned into his pillow. “It’s Clark. He wants me to come into HQ.”

“No, no, you’re not.” Jenny told him. 

“For what?” Paige asked, as she returned with a glass of water. 

Mike struggled to sit back up, Jenny raising a hand to help support his back. “He didn’t say,” He grunted as he pulled himself up. 

“Well, if it’s Clark, it’s gotta be about the Bello bust, right?” Paul reasoned. 

“But you can’t go,” Jenny insisted. “You can barely sit up.”

“He wasn’t asking,” He told her.

“You better pop some pills, bro,” Johnny chuckled. “Sounds like you’re about to get a medal.”

“Hope they don’t take my picture.” He joked.

Charlie and Paul helped him onto his feet, the pain of movement apparent by the groans he made. Johnny pulled Paul away to ask him about the dimensions of the room, while Paige went to get some pain killers for him. Charlie then hugged him close, being careful not to hug him too tightly. “I’m so sorry, Mikey,” She whispered into his shoulder, tears stinging her eyes. 

“It wasn’t your fault.” He patted her on the back reassuringly. 

After breaking away from him, she slipped upstairs to recoup after the chaotic morning. Jenny stood face to face with him. Even though he was standing, he couldn’t straighten out his back all the way, so he leaned forward slightly and off the left, favoring his wound. He looked into her hazel eyes with a mixture of guilt, worry, pain, and sorrow. “You sure you’re okay?” Jenny finally asked, trying to remain as stoic as possible. 

Paige returned holding up pills towards him. “Didn’t you hear? I’m about to get a medal.” He joked, as he took the pills from her. Jenny leaned down and grabbed the cup of water that was sitting on the coffee table and handed it him to help wash down the pills. After one gulp, Mike handed Jenny the cup, giving her one last look, and then slowly shuffled towards the door.


	15. Restless

After finishing up her small jobs that she had agreed to do, Jenny came downstairs to find the rest of the house congregated in the living room, minus Mike and Jakes. Johnny was in the middle of inflating the bouncy castle he had rented, a childlike glee riddled all over his face. Paul and Paige watched in amusement as he went about blowing up the castle.

“Looks great, Johnny,” Jenny commented with a smile. She noticed that Charlie was sitting alone on the couch, pouring over sheets of paper with a highlighter. Jenny sat down next to her. “What are you reading, bookworm?”

“Call logs from the detention center.” Charlie didn’t even look up from the pages, intensely staring at the words on the page as if she was memorizing them. “Trying to isolate the calls to see who put in Bello’s visitation request. We must have missed something.”

“That’s pretty much the most boring thing I’ve ever heard in my life.” Johnny said, climbing down from the mostly blown up castle.

Paige and Paul went back and forth on it with him, while Jenny nudged Charlie with her elbow. “Don’t you think you deserve a little break? We’ve been going to hot and heavy with this Odin and Bello thing, and it's Jakes' big day, so why not just…”

“If you are not going to help me, go help Johnny.” She muttered coldly.

As Jenny tried not to feel hurt by her words, the doorbell rang. “Oo, those must be the girls!” Johnny squealed in delight as he dashed towards the door.

“Okay, tell me the truth,” Jenny rose from her seat on the couch and addressed Paige and Paul. “Did any of you put something in his drink?”

“That, my dear sis, is all 100 percent sober Johnny Tuturro.” Paul replied.

“I’m already exhausted.” She mumbled as she sat next to him by the fireplace.

The strippers and Johnny poured into the room as Jenny rolled her eyes. If she had still been a part of the party planning committee, she would have never agreed to strippers.

“So which one of you is the birthday boy?” One of them said scanning over the room.

“Oh, he’s not here yet.” Johnny chimed in. Then he turned to Paige. “But you want to reel that in for me?”

Paige shrugged and picked up her phone, calling Jakes in order to lure him back home. “Does he think that Dale doesn’t already know about all this?” Jenny asked Paul.

“You know, I don’t think he cares.” He motioned to the group of strippers, who were being encouraged to start bouncing in the castle by Johnny.

“If I’m going to get through this night, I’m going to need a stiff drink. How about you?” She stood up and motioned for Paul to follow her into the kitchen. “Any sign of our wounded warrior?” She asked, grabbing bottles of vodka and rum.

“Not yet.” He replied, sitting on the island across from her.

“I still don’t think he should have gone into headquarters. The guy just got his ass beat and was practically spilling out of his stitches.” She shook her head, trying to focus on making the perfect cocktail.

“He’ll be fine, don’t worry.” Briggs assured her.

Paige sauntered into the kitchen at that point. “Jenn, if I am going to be expected to get through this party without punching Johnny, I will need lots of alcohol.”

“You got it, sis.” Jenny winked at her, grabbing another glass.

“So what were we talking about?” Paige slid down next to Paul.

“Jenny’s worried about her little crush.” Paul teased, glancing over at his sister, as Paige "ooh'd" and "aww'd". 

Jenny paused in her movements and stared between the two of them. “What?”

Paul and Paige chuckled. “Oh, come on.” Paige giggled. “It’s probably the worst kept secret in Graceland that you two have got a thing for each other.”

“Making goo-goo eyes at each other. All the blushing. Plus, you may forget this, but I am your brother after all.” Paul pointed out. “I think I know when you’re interested in someone.”

Jenny shrugged it off and went back to pouring out drinks. “You guys are making me sound like a schoolgirl.”

Paige made a face. “No offense, babe, but you kinda are.”

She rolled her eyes as she handed the two of them their drinks. “Look, it’s just... complicated, okay?" Even saying that word annoyed her. She had been so mad at Mike when he said it before, but it truly was the best word the English language had to offer for their situation. "Besides, I think it’s safe to say that getting stabbed in the gut is a real mood killer.”

“I’ll drink to that.” Paul raised his cup into the air, clinking it against the two of theirs.

They went back into the living room and sat on the steps, watching Johnny stand motionless, ogling over the strippers in the bounce house.

“I think they broke Johnny.” Jenny joked.

“You going to join them?” Paul nudged Paige in the side.

She scoffed at him. “Okay, the only reason why I am supporting this horrific display of misogyny is because they’re probably saving up for law school.” 

“What about you, Chuck?” Paul called over to the still boiling mad Charlie. She made a show of turning another page and not answering him. Clearly, she was not having a good time. Either she didn’t approve of the party, or she was that intent on her work.

“Jenny?” Paige looked over at her. “You hopping in the castle?”

“Oh, no, no.” Jenny violently shook her head. “Two reasons. One: my brother is right here and two: I’m not playing into Johnny's fantasies.”

“How about you, J.T.?” Paul asked him. “I know you want to jump in there.”

“I’m still prepping. Like emotionally.” He said, never taking his eyes off the castle.

Just then, the sound of the door being unlocked made them all look towards it. Johnny hushed the strippers down and told everyone to get ready. Once the door opened, Johnny and the strippers yelled, “Surprise!” But they were disappointed to find Mike standing in the doorway.

“Oh, false alarm.” Johnny told them. “It’s just Mike.”

“Is he not here yet?” Mike asked as Paul and Johnny made their way over to greet him. Jenny lagged back, staring down at her drink.

“No such luck.” Paul answered.

Johnny pointed to the castle. “You want to get in?”

“No, thanks, Johnny. I almost died today.” Mike grunted. Jenny noticed that he still couldn’t stand completely upright. 

Charlie, who had finally put down her call logs, walked up to greet him. “You okay?” She asked him full of concern. He nodded in response and gave a weak smile. “They give you a medal?”

“No, they just gave me a pat on the back.” Mike told them. Another lie. He hadn’t been called into headquarters to receive an award. His supervising agent, Juan Badillo, had gone missing, and the Bureau was asking Mike if he thought Paul had something to do with it. Of course, he had dismissed that theory as ludicrous. Sure, Paul had done many things that were sneaky and dishonest, but murder? Still, the whole way back to Graceland, he couldn't help but shake the feeling that maybe Paul was involved somehow.

“Well, you deserve a hell of a lot more than that, Mikey.” Paul praised.

Mike gave him a half smirk, scanning over him. Could he really be capable of such a crime? “Couldn’t have done it without you, buddy.”

Jenny bit down on her tongue. How dare he act all buddy-buddy with her brother, when she knew his secret investigation. Trying to act like his friend when he was reporting all of his moves to the Bureau. After downing the rest of her drink, she walked towards him, arms folded across her chest. “I need to talk to you.” She nodded upstairs and made her way up. They needed to be out of earshot of the party-goers.

“Lady calls,” Paul gestured to Mike, who sighed heavily. He knew what he was in for, and frankly, he was not up for it.

Carefully, he slipped up the stairs and found Jenny standing in her doorway, holding it open for him. Her hazel eyes glaring him down. “Hi.” He said unfriendly, as he walked past her into the room.

Jenny slammed the door behind her. “You’ve got some balls, you know that?” She placed her hands on her hips, as he slowly lowered himself onto her bed.

“And I thought after this morning, we were past all that.” Mike muttered.

“I’m not going to let you bleed out on the couch, Mike, but I’ll be damned if I let you play the best friend game with my brother. Not after what you told me.”

“It’s complicated.”

“Mike, I swear to God,” She pinched the bridge of her nose. Yes, they were out of direct earshot from the party downstairs, but she knew if she started screaming, they would eventually attract attention. Despite all the rage she felt, she had to keep her cool. “You keep using that word, as if it explains everything. But it’s not complicated. It doesn’t explain anything. You have been sitting there, looking everyone in the eye, and lying your ass off. Never mind that these people care about you and…”

“Briggs is a junkie.” Mike admitted, looking her dead in the eyes.

Jenny felt her whole body freeze. “What?”

“He’s a recovering heroin addict.”

“How do you know that?” She tried to keep an innocent look on her face, but at this point, it was rather useless.

He had already caught on. “I followed him to a narc anon meeting.” He said, noticing the way she reacted to the news. “But I think the question is, how do you know that?”

Jenny clamped down on her jaw. “No, no. If this is some ploy to try and get information out of me…”

“Clearly, we know the same things, so it’s not that much of a ploy.”

“Do we?” Jenny studied him closely. Neither of them moved or spoke for a brief moment, each of them trying to gauge what the other person knew. Then, she grabbed the chair at her desk and moved it across from him. “Okay, cards on the table. Tell me what you know.”

“You first.” Mike leaned forward, forgetting his wounded side for a moment. This was the first time he actually was talking with someone who knew something about Briggs that wasn’t the man himself. This is what he had been waiting for since the beginning. He just didn’t expect it from her.

“Okay, how about this?” Jenny negotiated. “A question for an answer. Each of us takes a turn asking and answering one question.”

Mike set his jaw and nodded. “Deal, how long have you known about his addiction?”

“Since the start.” Jenny was determined to reveal as little information as she could. Maybe he knew everything, maybe he only knew part of the story. Either way, with Paul being so keen on keeping this part of his life a secret from the house, she was not going to be the one to break the story.

“Does that mean you were in Mexico with him?” Mike asked.

Okay, so maybe he does know a lot. “My turn, dumbass. Is his addiction the reason why the FBI is investigating him?”

“No, the Bureau thinks there’s more.”

“What does that mean?”

“My turn now.” Mike gave her a teasing look, as he spit her words back at her. “Were you in Mexico with him?”

“No, but he called me from Mexico, and I came and got him. What do you mean by 'more'?” She spoke quickly hoping to get to Mike’s answer as fast as possible.

Mike sighed and shoved his hands in his jacket pockets. “My supervising agent. The one who sent me on Briggs. He’s missing. And they think Paul might have done away with him.”

Jenny leaned back in her chair in shock. Everything in her told her that he must have been lying. There was no way that her brother was capable of something like that. “That’s… that’s insane.” She shook her head. “Paul might be a lot of things, but…”

“So you don’t think he’s capable of doing something like that?”

“Of course not.” Jenny answered quickly. “What is this, a bad joke?”

“I wish it were.” Mike said solemnly. “You came and got him from Mexico. Then what?” Jenny was still reeling from the fact that the FBI considered her brother to be a murder suspect. She just couldn’t come to terms with it. She felt a hand rest on hers, pulling her back to the present. "I just want to know the truth." Mike told her as gently as he could. Who knows? Maybe she knows enough that could end the case right there.

She looked back at him. _Damn those puppy dog eyes._ She had sworn that she would never tell anyone what had happened to Paul. But with the severity of the accusations by the Bureau, maybe she could redeem him. So, she suddenly decided to be very honest. “I was in Florida when he called me. On some sort of mission, doing what I normally do. And I got this call from a weird number. Normally, I don’t answer calls like that, because, you know, they’re usually telemarketers, but for some reason, I knew I had to answer.” She swallowed, feeling a large lump in her throat. “I could barely understand him, Mike. His speech was slurred and he kept alternating between talking about keys and the Estate, that’s where he was stationed before Graceland. Eventually, I was able to get enough information to find out where he was. I might have hijacked a private jet to get to him, but I was able to pick him up eventually. When I got there... Do you have siblings, Mike?”

He shook his head. “I’m an only child.”

She nodded and continued. “Maybe it’s because he’s older than me, but… I always saw him as this big strong man. He was the one who helped scare the bullies off the playground, who carried me into the house when I fell and broke my leg trying to climb a tree, the one who taught me how to take and throw a punch. He was my hero. But that day, when I saw him in Mexico… I barely recognized him. He could barely stand, and he looked so ashen that I thought he was dead. For the briefest second, I thought that someone had cloned him or something.”

“Did he tell you about Jangles?” Mike asked carefully.

Jenny took in a deep breath, trying not to let the tears stinging the corner of her eyes fall. “Yeah. He kept shaking so terribly, I had to practically hold his hands still. And I remember the wild look in his eye when he told me. He kept looking over his shoulder like he was expecting Jangles to be crouched behind him. He could barely focus on the words that he was saying. When we landed in the States, he insisted that we go to the Estate. He wouldn’t tell me why, but he had to go. He had to go see if everyone was alright. And when we pulled up… we saw a pile of ash where a house once stood. I had never seen my brother cry. At least not until that day. The hero I had idolized for years was broken. He ran up to that house and crumbled into a heap like someone had broken his kneecaps. I remember holding him on that beach, staring at the pile of burnt rubble, and hearing him sob into my shoulder.”

Mike listened intently. He was not there, but he could feel like it. Jenny looked as though she were viewing it from a movie right in front of her. “I’m sorry, Jenny,” was the only thing he could think of to say.

She wiped away one stray tear. “I made a deal with him then. We both knew that if the Bureau found out about him getting hooked on heroin, they would boot his ass to the curb. And Paul had already lost so much, he would not have been able to survive losing his badge. So I promised to keep his addiction a secret, as long as he promised to stay clean. I was the one who told him to go to those anonymous meetings in the first place. I got him into discreet rehab centers to detox him.” Jenny took another breath and stared back at Mike. “I know that he’s gone a little off the deep end lately and I know that he's a lot to handle. Don’t think I haven’t noticed it. Truth be told, I guess I’ve always been worried that this would happen one day. Paul likes to go pedal to the metal, and I knew it was only a matter of time before the Bureau started raising their eyebrows. That was part of the reason why I came here in the first place. And why I decided to stay. I guess I just didn’t bank on you.” Jenny inhaled and leaned forward in her chair, her eyes boring into his. "So, now the question is... what do we go from here?"

His gaze dropped to the floor. From his pocket, he produced a folded piece of paper. After unfolding it, he handed it to her. She took it in her hands. It was a child’s writing with small doodles of policemen stick figures and a jail cell. She didn’t need to know why he had handed this to her. Up at the top of the page written was “Why I Want to be in the FBI by Mike Warren”. Jenny looked up at Mike again. “I wanted to be an FBI agent my entire life.” He explained. “And I made it. Then I got this assignment. The longer I stay here, the more I realized, it’s wrong. And then you came along and… completely changed everything. I never wanted you to get mixed up in this. But I am an FBI agent. This is my job.”

Jenny handed him back his paper. “My brother isn’t a murderer, Mike.”

“I don’t think he is either.” He told her, slipping the piece of paper back in his pocket.

“Then, go and tell them that.” Jenny reached and placed a hand on his knee. “Look, I know that you’re just trying to follow orders and be a good little soldier. But can’t we help him instead of turning him in? Don’t you think he deserves that much at least?”

Mike nodded, then slowly stood up. Jenny rose to help steady him. Once he was firmly on his feet, he looked down at her. “What if we’re wrong?”

Jenny bit her lower lip. That was a thought that had been swirling around in the back of her mind. But she just couldn’t bring herself to believe it. But she also couldn’t shake that thought away completely. What if they were wrong?

Mike scooted out of the room, leaving Jenny to think about everything that had just happened. She finally let loose the tears she had been holding back. Having to relive all of the dealings with Paul and his addiction was enough to send tears down her cheeks. But then having to deal with her “sort of” feelings for Mike. Thinking about all he knew and all of lying he had done to everyone, including her. She again found herself wishing more than anything that she had a different job, different family, different life. But Paul needed her. Mike needed her.

She decided not to rejoin the party downstairs, no longer feeling up for it. So she stayed in her room, out of sight and out of mind. Hopefully, Johnny wouldn’t come looking for her. Jenny sat in silence, lost in thought for what seemed like hours. That is until she heard slamming in the other room. Her bedroom shared a wall with Dale. Something told her that he was home now and not happy with Johnny, judging from the sounds of things being smashed and thrown around.

“Alright, all y’all listen up.” Johnny’s voice echoed upstairs, calling everyone’s attention. By that time of the night, everyone was already in their rooms and could hear him. Judging from the sound of his voice, Johnny was no longer feeling joyful. There was a raw anger in his tone. No one opened their door, not willing to face him. “Hey, none of us asked to be here, but dammit, here we are. You know, you can all run around here acting like we’re not a family. But guess what? That’s what you call seven people all living in one house! Dammit, guys. We got a job where every freakin’ day, we’re out there playing bosom buddies with killers and drug dealers. So excuse the hell out of me, if I’m looking for an excuse to forget about all of that! Is that too much to ask for?” Silence fell over the house, and Johnny finally retreated to his room. Everyone in the house considered his words and all of the given circumstances of the last few days. They were all in for a restless night sleep.


	16. Covert

Mike knocked on Jenny’s door the next morning. Everything in him told him not to, to forget about he and go on by himself. But before he could talk himself out of it, Jenny had already opened the door. Jenny looked shocked seeing him at her door. She figured he would want to keep a wide berth from her since the night before when they disclosed everything about Mike’s investigation. “What do you want?” She asked cautiously.

“Doctors say that exercise is good for my injury.” He replied. “Want to join me for a walk?”

“A walk?” She began to wonder if he even remembered last night.

“Yeah, you know, enjoy some fresh air.” He sold it like a salesman. “Walk along the beach.”

“What and frolic through the meadows and chase rainbows?” She snickered. “Go knock on Johnny’s door. I’m sure he’d love to.” Jenny moved to close the door, but he held out a hand to stop her.

“Do you always have to do that?” Mike shook his head and grinned.

“Do what?”

“Joke and push me away at the same time. You do it a lot, you know.”

“Mike, I’m not sure what you want from me.”

“It’s just a walk, Jenny.” Mike assured her but giving her a secret look. “Please, I could… really use it.”

She searched his face. From what she could tell, he was wanting something from her. Maybe it was just a harmless little walk. Or maybe there was something more. But he was also looking at her with his damn puppy eyes, which made it very hard to deny him. “Fine.” She gave in. “Just let me get dressed. And if you think we’re going to hold hands or something cutesy like that, you can forget the whole thing. Might I remind you that I do know how to throw a punch.” She shut the door in his face before he had a chance to respond.

They walked in silence along the beach. Mike was still limited in his ability to walk, so it was slow going. The sounds of the crashing waves and the call of seagulls was the only thing between them for a while. It was hard to know what to say after the night they had, confessing all the secrets they had been hiding for so long. Mike was supposed to be looking into Paul possibly being connected with the disappearance of Juan Badillo. That was a large pill to swallow for both of them. “I told Paul.” Mike finally admitted.

Jenny stopped in her tracks and stared at him. “You what?”

“I told Paul about the investigation.” He repeated, secretly grateful they had stopped.

“Okay… and why did you do that?”

He looked down at the sand for a second before returning a look to her. “I told Briggs about the investigation because I wanted to see the look in his eyes when I said the name ‘Juan Badillo’. He’s my supervisor that went missing.”

“And what did you see?” She asked, almost afraid of the answer.

He shrugged his shoulders. “He didn’t know who he was.”

“Okay,” Jenny allowed herself to smile. “So that proves it, doesn’t it? He can’t be the killer if he doesn’t know him.”

“Not necessarily. Just because he doesn’t know the name doesn’t mean that he doesn’t know the man.” Mike informed her.

Jenny hated to admit it, but he was right about that. At least from a legal standpoint. “So now what?”

“Now, we gotta prove that Briggs didn’t do it.”

She gave him a surprised look. “We?”

“I can’t do this by myself, Jenny.” He told her. “I need your genius on this case.”

A scoff escaped her. “You are crazy. What makes you think I would help you investigate my own brother?”

“Because you care about him. You said so yourself you’ve been worried, and you want to help him. The only way to do that is to dig into what happened. Don’t you want to know the truth?”

She shook her head. “What if he finds out that I’m looking into him? He’s going to view that as a betrayal. Plus, won’t it look a little suspicious from the Bureau’s point of view that your source of information is his sister?”

He nodded. “We can keep your name out of it. We can put it all on me, with your help of course.” He took one step closer to her. “Look, if we don’t look into this, then the Bureau will. And who knows what that will mean for Paul, or the rest of the house for that matter. Please, Jenny. I need your help.”

Jenny stared back at him. She could just picture all of the desk jockeys down at headquarters coming through and raiding Graceland, putting Paul in handcuffs and dragging him to a police van, locking the rest of the house down and throwing them in interrogation rooms for hours on end. She couldn’t allow that to happen. And if the Bureau was antsy enough to interrogate Mike about it, chances are they would be hovering over them until a conclusion was reached. “Fine.” She agreed reluctantly. “But we keep my name out of this. As far as anyone else is concerned, I’m just a glorified search engine.”

“I think you need to give yourself a little more credit than that.” He flashed one of his signature dashing smiles.

Damn him. It was really hard not to smile back him. “Well, then, Agent Warren, where do we start?”

“Well, the Bureau says that they believe that Juan might have been wearing a wire and chose to confront Briggs. If we find that recording, we might get to the bottom of what happened.”

“So where’s the recording?”

“Most likely in his car.” He replied, motioning for her to start walking again. “If Briggs did or did not do it, the evidence would more than likely be there. But Juan’s car happens to be missing. So we can watch Paul really closely to see if he will lead us to the car or…” Mike glanced at Jenny, giving her a knowing look.

Jenny rolled her eyes. “Or we use my skills to track it down,” She finished the sentence. “You know I’m starting to feel a little used.”

“Oh, you’re definitely being used.” Mike reached out grabbed a hold of her hand with a chuckle.

She allowed their hands to intertwine for a moment, before pulling away. Again, she stood still, making Mike stopped, looking at her confused. Her gaze was aimed downward for a moment, before raising it again. “Really, though. Am I being used?”

He scoffed. “Jenny, it was just a joke.”

“Well, I’m not joking, Mike. I mean, who’s to say that you aren’t interested in me just because I’m useful to you. Whether it’s because of my skills or my relation to Paul… With all the things you know, who’s to say that this…” She gestured between the two of them. “…is real?”

Mike had never really thought of it like that. But he could understand her point. On paper, that was almost exactly how it looked. He reached out and brushed a strand of hair out of her face that was blowing in the wind. “Because I didn’t know what you knew, Jenn. And this…” Reaching out his hand again, he held hers to his with a firm grip to show his sincerity. “This right here, is just you and me. This was you and me before you knew about why I was here at Graceland, before we got tangled up in this… mess of an investigation. I like you for you, not because of anything else.”

Jenny looked up at him, wanting to believe him, wanting to trust him. “Well, maybe we should just… keep things professional,” She offered. “For now, at least.”

He slowly nodded his head and looked down at their hands, still holding fast together. Then, he flashed another teasing smile. “Then you need stop wearing short shorts.”

She laughed heartily, not realizing how much she needed to. In fact, she could hardly remember the last time she had. “You are so shallow,” She pushed him, causing him to wince in pain. “Oh, my God, Mike, I’m sorry.” But then she saw a playful glint in his eyes. “Oh, you dickhead!”

“I’m sorry, it was just so easy.” He defended, giggling like a madman.

“That is not fair.” She stomped ahead of him, making a beeline back towards the house. “Have fun walking by yourself like a creeper.”

>>>

“It looks like a rusty piece of crap,” Jenny turned the object over in her hand a couple of times. Mike had found a magnetic GPS tracker to plant on Briggs’ car. He and Jenny were standing by his car, watching over the shoulders to make sure he wasn’t coming.

“Yeah, well it will blend right in with this thing,” He patted the door of Paul’s run-down Jeep.

“Hey, don’t talk shit about ol’ Bessie here.” Jenny scolded teasingly. “She may not be the ‘purtiest’ heifer put out to pasture, but she sure is reliable.”

Mike smirked. “Okay, so then this will just be a little flea that ol’ Bessie won’t notice.”

Jenny shook her head, an uneasy feeling settling in. “We go through all this trouble to make sure no one follows us to Graceland, and then, here we are following ourselves.”

“I don’t like it either,” He told her. “But I saw Briggs last night. He was wearing a hoodie.” It was true. Feeling paranoid that Paul might slip out when the house was asleep, Mike had positioned himself on the couch. At about 2 in the morning, Paul had come down the stairs and “woke Mike up”, even though Mike had been awake the whole time. Briggs had to have known why Mike was there, but he never said anything. But that was okay with Mike. He wanted him to feel nervous or cornered. More likely to make a mistake that way.

“He was wearing a hoodie?” Jenny held a hand to her chest dramatically. “Should we call Dateline?”

“He was dressed to go out, he saw me, and turned right around,” He insisted. “I can’t keep track of him forever.”

“Then why can’t we track his phone?” She argued. “That’s harmless enough, right?”

“If he’s feeling nervous, like I think he is, he’s going to take precautionary measures, and that includes his phone.” Mike looked at her, hoping that she would understand why they were doing this.

Jenny, against her better judgement, sighed and held out the tracker to Mike. He looked at it and back at her. “I’m not doing it.”

“Are you kidding? It was your idea.”

“I’m wounded.”

She folded her arms across her chest. “Are you seriously playing the “I got stabbed” card right now?"

He shrugged. “It’s a good card.” For extra measure, he gave her a victorious grin, knowing that he had already won.

Silently swearing revenge on him, she sighed. “Fine, but no staring at my ass.” Jenny dropped down to her stomach and reached to place the GPS tracker in the underbelly of Paul’s car. Everything in her was screaming how wrong it was that she was doing this. That she should palm the tracker and lie to Mike saying she had placed it on his car when she hadn’t. But she still wanted to know the truth. Maybe Mike was right, maybe Paul was capable of such atrocities. Maybe he was perfectly innocent. And since there was no way her brother would be completely forthcoming and honest, this was the only way to find out for sure. Placing it on one of the rusty pipes underneath, Jenny withdrew from underneath the car and hopped onto her feet again. When she looked at Mike, he had only just torn his gaze away. Clearly, he had been staring. “Hey, what did I say?”

He held out his hands innocently. “What? I’m wounded, remember?”

"Oh, really?" She started poking at his stomach, like she was searching for his scar. "Is it here?" When her finger jabbed his stitches, he flinched and groaned in pain. "Oh, you poor baby." Jenny pouted mockingly at him. 

Mike had to stop himself from grabbing a hold of her and kissing her. He wanted to keep things professional, like what she wanted, but... she had a really kissable mouth. "I'm starting to regret asking for your help." He pushed her hand away and covered his side protectively. 

"Too late now," Jenny stuck out her tongue at him.

Giggling and moving back towards the house, the two of them continued to tease each other, almost as if they were testing the other person to who was going to break their "professionalism" first.


	17. Instinct

Every once in a blue moon, there will be a morning where Johnny feels motivated to make pancakes. But he doesn’t make just any circular, boring pancakes. Oh, no. He loves to challenge himself by making pancakes into as many shapes as he can think of. This particular day was that morning.

Jenny and Mike came back from their covert plan of placing a tracker on Paul’s car and was using a game of frisbee as their cover story. They entered the house still joking with each other. Mike loved playing up his injury to torture Jenny and she had reached her limit.

“Is a Jamaican accent required?” They heard Paul say in the worst Jamaican accent to exist as they entered the kitchen. Jakes was trying to recruit him to help out with his bird investigation.

Paige and DJ laughed at him, while Johnny was too focused on his newest pancake creation. “I’m tempted to say yes just to hear that accent again,” DJ laughed at him. From all of the drama from the night before with his birthday brawl, so Jenny was very pleased to see a smile on his face again.

“Presto,” Johnny presented his pancake creation to Paige.

Jenny looked over her shoulder and saw that he had created an octopus and placed two blueberries on it as the eyes. “That’s one sexy looking octopus.” She told him.

“I know.”

Mike pulled Paul out of the room for a second and spoke to him in hushed tones. Jenny’s stomach did more flips than Johnny’s pancakes. Unfortunately, the stabbing guilt she was feeling was starting to become her norm. “Can you make me… a car?”

Johnny cracked his knuckles confidently. “Can I? Why don’t we just see, shall we?”

“Make it a Ferrari,” Dale joked as he finished the rest of his pancake and rose to put his plate in the sink.

Paige’s phone pinged. “Oh, lord.” She groaned looking at it. “Sorry, I gotta take my octopus to go. HQ is busting my ass to get this case files in.” Placing her pancake in her mouth, she waved to the rest of the house and booked it upstairs.

“Where’s Charlie?” Jenny asked, as Paul and Dale slipped out of the house, on some sort of mission to help DJ’s case. Mike rejoined them and went to the fridge to pour himself some orange juice.

“She’s out with some new C.I. she’s obsessed with,” Johnny said absentmindedly, his focus primarily on his work.

“Hey, Jenny,” Mike said, after swallowing a gulp of orange juice. “I could use your skills to help me with this theory I’m working on.” He had to be careful not to tip anyone off, so they didn’t get involved in his investigation.

Jenny nodded, understanding his meaning. “You got it, sweet cheeks. But first, I need to eat my Ferrari pancake. I think you can understand why that take's priority over work.”

“Dammit!” Johnny exclaimed, waving his hand back. “I just burnt my finger, man.”

“Oh, you poor sweet child.” Jenny rose to examine his finger. “Didn’t your momma ever tell you to not play around a hot stove?”

“Yeah,” He held the finger closer to her face. “Kiss to make it feel better?”

Jenny flinched away from him and roughly pushed his hand away. “In your dreams and only in your dreams.” She then looked down at the pancake he was in the middle of creating. “You call that a Ferrari? That looks like actual shit.”

Johnny scoffed. “I just burned my hand trying to make that. You think you can do better?”

“Absolutely,” She grabbed a hold of the tube full of pancake batter in his other hand. “I’ll be with you in a moment, Mikey. First, I gotta take Johnny here to school.”

Mike shook his head and slipped upstairs as Jenny and Johnny continued their pancake battle.

>>>

Mike found himself in the phone room staring at the same screen for an hour. He had pulled up the tracking device on his computer, but by the looks of things, Paul’s car hadn’t moved. As he absentmindedly squeezed his hand grip, Jenny entered, clutching a laptop to her chest. “Hey,” She greeted as she walked towards him. “Any movement?”

“Not an inch.” He replied, as she stood next to him looking at the screen. “So either Briggs and Jakes are having a picnic in the parking lot…”

She snickered. “Ha! That’s an adorable image. Thank you for that.”

“… then it looks like they took Jakes’ car.” His mind raced wildly with thought. “Looks kinda sketchy to me.”

“It could have been an innocent decision.” She tried to say, but knew it was weak.

“When has Paul ever made an innocent decision in his life?” Mike countered.

“Okay, fine.” She conceded. “But why not focus on the things we can control? Like, finding the missing car before they do.” She pulled up a rolling chair across from him. Not next to him. Next to him was too close. And opened the computer.

Mike sat up and regarded the computer she was now typing on. “That’s not your laptop.”

“Good catch, Sherlock. It’s Charlie’s.” She was at the login screen and tried to think of what her password would be. “We want to leave my name out of this whole investigation, remember? Meaning I can’t get caught looking into this on my own laptop. And Charlie ain’t around, so she can’t tell me ‘no’.” She entered in _Charlie1234_ and was instantly in. “Remind me later to talk to her about password security.”

He couldn’t help but smile. There was no denying the skill Jenny had with the digital world. It was one of the many things he liked about her. _Wait…_ “So talk me through what you’re doing?”

“Well, the FBI has publicized Juan Badillo’s disappearance and the information on his missing car, which saves us a step.” She worked until she found the “missing” flyer they had put out. “Okay, so we know that it’s a 2013 Crown Vic, but they don’t tell us the plate numbers for some reason.” Jenny’s fingers flew over the keys as she spoke like a well-choreographed dance.

Mike opened a new window. “So, we need to find his plate numbers?” This was one thing he knew he would be able to find easily.

“Found it,” She chimed in with a victorious smirk. It would be a lie to say that she didn’t enjoy what she did, and being the best at it. “You really need to keep up, junior. I’ll send you the plate numbers now. See if you can find the car through city traffic cameras while I look at the stolen car reports and repos from the past couple of days.”

He clicked through a couple of things before sighing. “How exactly am I going to do that?”

Jenny rolled her eyes and rose to her feet to help him. “Jesus Christ, didn’t you score 1700 on your practicals?”

“Yeah, but there wasn’t a section on computer hacking.”

“It’s not hacking, you dweeb. It’s using your resources wisely.” She was able to walk him through how to do it and go back to her own searching. They worked in silence for a while, the only sound being the keystrokes and clicks of each other’s computers. Jenny had tried to track Paul’s phone, despite Mike’s skepticism. Turns out he was right. Through her digging, she found that Paul had installed a scrambling program that interfered with tracking him. The program itself was not the most sophisticated program so she tried to work her way through disabling it. They could track his phone by accessing it through his cell service, which was not impossible but would take way longer than either one of them had the patience for. Truth be told, a lot of the ideas she had to help solve this were time consuming. But if this is what it took to clear Paul’s name or not, then this is what she had to do.

“I just found Juan’s car.” She heard Mike say victoriously.

Jenny raised her head and saw him shooting an “eat shit” look in her direction. “What?” She rose to her feet again and peered over his shoulder.

“There’s a gas station over in Long Beach.” He clicked to zoom in closer. The screen showed a young white boy probably in his mid to late twenties in a baseball cap and plaid shirt.

“Paul looks different than I remember.” She joked.

“But it doesn’t mean Briggs isn’t involved.” He countered.

“So we need to identify the kid?” Jenny moved her hand out to try and pull up the Bureau’s database.

But Mike clicked on a different window, pulling up the kid’s information. “Got it. You really need to keep up here, junior.”

Jenny shot him a look of warning. “Are you really trying to get yourself hit right now?”

Mike leaned back in his chair in a cocky manner. “I guess you’re not the only genius in the room.”

She kicked at the wheels of his chair to roll him away as she looked over the kid’s rap sheet. “His name is Clayton Anders. Looks like the Bureau has got him tied with the Mongrel gang out in Seal Beach.”

“Sounds like a typical smash and grab. Steal a car, use it a crime, then dump it.” Mike said, as he pushed his chair closer to the computer again. 

“So, if he’s still using the car…” Jenny thought aloud.

“Then, he hasn’t had it for long and he’s not going to have it for much longer.” He finished for her.

“Meaning we need to find this kid and fast.” Jenny bit her lip in thought. She scrolled through his profile, looking at all the intel the Bureau had gathered on him. Apparently, he had a real close relationship with his mother, who benefited from some of Anders’ robberies. It also listed that she was an avid church-goer and volunteer. “Give me your chair.” She ordered, gesturing to the chair he was currently sitting on.

He looked down at it and then back at her in confusion. “Why? What’s wrong with your chair?”

“And what’s wrong with chivalry? I can’t focus on finding this guy if I’m standing, and my chair is all the way over there. Now get up.” To make her point clearer, she jerked the chair closer to her. He reluctantly got up with a grunt.

“You know, you’re kind of bossy.”

“And you’re kind of whiney,” She spat back, sinking into the chair and typing away at the screen. “Now hush up and let me do my thing.” He decided to sit on the desk next to her, watching while she worked. Her eyebrows were knitted together, as she concentrated on searching for more information. As she read something to herself, her mouth would move slightly. Every once in a while, her hands would stop typing, whether she was waiting for something to load or she was thinking something through, and she would bring her hand up to her mouth, to chew absentmindedly on her thumbnail. Then, in a flash, her typing and clicks would resume. “You should take a picture,” She commented, still focused on the screen in front of her. “It’ll last longer.”

He tried to hide a blush, not realizing that he had been staring at her. “I just like watching you work.” Mike shrugged.

Jenny’s fingers paused mid-stroke and she finally turned her gaze at him. In truth, she almost liked it when he was watching her. It gave her a weird sense of confidence. But she was not about to admit that now. “Are you going to help or make goo-goo eyes at me all day?”

“Alright, alright. What do you need?”

She sighed and refocused herself. Secretly, she didn’t need his help. This was something she could do all on her own. Blindfolded. But she needed to refocus their attention on the very pressing matter at hand. “Okay, so we got a huge momma’s boy with no social media accounts. Not surprising, considering all the robberies he is suspected of being a part of. His mother is trying to make herself out to be a wholesome woman, by being very involved in her local church, but she just recently bought a very pricey home in cash and loves to sport minks and furs at various charity events.”

“Why not use his mom then?” Mike suggested. “If he’s gifting her with a bunch of cash, then she probably knows how to find him.”

“Exactly what I was thinking…” She resumed typing and pulled up a screen. “Okay, so judging by her phone records, they keep in contact quite a bit, almost hourly.”

“Can you trace where the calls came from?” He asked, finally getting of the desk to look over her shoulder. His hand rested on the back of the chair, his arm lingering dangerously close to her back.

“ _Can you trace where the calls came from_?” She repeated in a mocking tone. “What? Do you think this is the first day of kindergarten?” With a hit of the enter key, she leaned back in her chair as the computer scanned through the call logs. “It will take a minute for the computer to do its thing, but after it’s finished, we will be able to see where Anders was when he took the calls.” Again, she looked up at him victoriously. “I think you owe me an apology.”

“For what?” He asked with a smile.

“For trying to claim superiority over me. I am the best at what I do, admit it.”

He bowed his head and chuckled. “Alright, I’m sorry for doubting your awesomeness.” When he raised his head again, they locked eyes, freezing both of them in place. “You are the best.”

They fully realized how close they were. So close that Jenny wondered if he could hear her heart beating out of her chest. There was that shockwave again. A familiar feeling that seemed to pull them together again, as strong as a magnetic pull. Both of their brains seemed to switch off yet again. Instinct took over. Mike grabbed Jenny’s face and pulled it to his, their lips smashing together in desperation. No thoughts entered either of their brains, only feelings and desires. Feeling that craving they felt for each other again. Jenny stood up and pushed him back enough, so he was sitting on the desk again, her hands gripping his hair like a lifeline. Mike’s arms held her waist close to his, feeling like there was no such thing as being too close. He trailed his mouth down to her jaw and neck, giving her a chance to gasp for air. Her fingers trailed down his torso towards the zipper in his jeans.

“Jenny, have you seen…” Johnny’s voice echoed into the small room. Jenny practically leapt five feet away from Mike as Johnny rounded the corner. He looked over the ruffled hair and crooked clothing between the two of them. A wicked smile formed over his face. “Oh, my God, I knew it! Paul owes me ten bucks.”

“Johnny, do you need something?” Jenny asked him, her eyes wild, but still slightly out of breath. She knew that her face was all red from embarrassment but tried to push through it. Mike could barely look his friend in the eye.

“I was going to ask you had seen the flier for the bouncy castle place. Since Charlie poked a hole in it, I need to know what the damage is. But if you two need a few minutes…”

“Get out!” She barked through her teeth and pushed him towards the door, Johnny giggling wildly the whole time.

“I’ll be downstairs when you two are ready to tell me all the dirty details.” Johnny yelled into the room before Jenny closed the door behind him. Sometimes, living with six other people had its drawbacks. But she was ultimately grateful for the interruption. They were working on a case, for crying out loud. A case that proved whether her brother was innocent of murder or not. This was not the time to be partaking in any side adventures.

Slowly, she turned to face Mike again, but refused to make direct eye contact with him. She feared that if she did, it would hit the play button again. Mike stammered a little, trying to find some sort of words to make light of the situation. Why was he being so stupid? He had a job to do. There was no room for distractions.

Luckily, they both received a break. The computer sang a little tune, telling them that it was done scanning the phone records. Clearing her throat, Jenny sat back down in the chair, that had been pushed back, and brought it closer to the screen. Mike stood up and faced the computer but was purposefully keeping a good distance between them. Not wanting to tempt fate again. “So it looks like…” Jenny clicked a couple times and scrolled through the results, trying to make her voice sound as casual as possible. “Most of the calls came from one location in particular.” Pulling up a satellite image of Seal Beach, she was able to show exactly where. It was some sort of small, hole-in-the-wall donut shop. “You in the mood for some donuts?”


	18. Two

Mike and Jenny rode in the car in silence for the most part. They were on their way to the donut shop where Clayton Anders was located. They hadn’t really talked much since their little brush earlier. Jenny was the one who wanted to keep things professional while they investigated Paul. And she let herself get swept up in her feelings. Part of her didn’t want to go with Mike on this trip. He could have handled things on his own. But she was determined to find things out for herself. If Paul was innocent of killing Juan Badillo, the evidence would be on that tape in his missing car. If Clayton Anders still had that car, he probably still had the tape. The tape would reveal the truth. No matter how ugly.

“I’m sorry.” Mike finally said, keeping his eyes fixed on the road.

Jenny, who was next to him in the passenger seat, was so lost in thought she had barely heard him. “What?”

“I shouldn’t have done that.” He admitted. “I know we’re trying to keep things… professional.”

She felt a shade of red settling in her cheeks and cast her gaze down at her shoes. “You weren’t the only one to blame.”

He inhaled through his nose. “I don’t typically make a habit of…”

By then, they were pulling into the donut shop’s parking lot. Jenny caught sight of a familiar car parked in front. “Look.” She pointed at Jakes’ pickup truck, grateful for the change in topic. Things were already awkward enough.

“Well, look who’s here.” He commented, pulling into an empty parking space.

“Do you think Paul is with him?” She asked, looking behind them towards the entrance, but also trying to keep low. If Paul saw her there with Mike, it would all be over.

“Only one way to find out.” Mike shut off the car and unbuckled his seat belt.

“Wait,” She reached out and placed a hand on his arm. He stalled in his movements and looked at her for the first time since their heated embrace. “How are you going to play this?”

Mike didn’t answer. There was no answer. At least no answer that she didn’t already know. He opened the door and exited the car. Jenny ducked her head low, but watched him go towards the driver side of the pickup. Then after some words were exchanged, Mike stormed inside. Some part of her wanted to follow him inside. Or to confront Jakes. But Paul could not know that she was investigating him. He would never forgive her. Even if she did have the best intentions.

After a few minutes had passed, Paul and Mike exited the donut shop. Before Mike could make his way back to the car, they stopped and had a brief heated debate. Jenny couldn’t make out what they were saying and didn’t dare move too much, so she wouldn’t attract attention. What was Paul doing with Clayton? Was he working with him to hide the car and destroy the tape? And why? If he was truly innocent, why was he acting so guilty?

As the questions swirled around her brain, Mike came back to the car. “What happened?” She asked, still glancing over her shoulder and keeping low.

“He thinks he’s being framed.” Mike said, leaning his head against his car seat.

“Who?”

“Briggs. He’s trying to find Juan’s car, because he thinks someone is setting him up. Both Paul and I have been called to go on a run with Clayton tomorrow.” As he explained it, Jakes and Paul pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street. Jenny finally sat up again as the car disappeared around the corner. “He told me he didn’t want to get involved in this and now here he is, getting involved.”

"Well it almost makes sense, doesn't it? He's just trying to clear his name."

He shook his head in thought. "It almost makes too much sense. Every time I confront him on a lie, he always has a perfectly reasonable and logical explanation to justify everything. Either he really is telling the truth, or he's way more conniving than either of us give him credit for."

“Did Clayton tell you where the car is?”

“No, I didn’t ask. But I suspect it will probably show up tomorrow with the smash and grab.”

“Tomorrow?” She finally registered what that meant. “Meaning I have to live with this for another day?” Now it was her turn to slump against the car seat. “I hate this. I hate hiding and sneaking around from my own brother.”

He sighed. “I should have never dragged you into this.”

“No, I’m in it now.” She shrugged. “I want to know the truth. And for someone who I want to believe is innocent, he sure is giving a lot of reasonable doubt.” She turned her head towards him. “Do you really believe that he did it?”

At first, he didn’t answer. It was a question that he had asked himself constantly ever since he found out about Juan’s disappearance. With every new piece of evidence they uncovered, and with every conversation he has with Briggs, his opinion changes. He had flip-flopped so many times, it was hard to see everything clearly anymore. “I’ll believe whatever is on that tape.”

>>>

Jenny was sitting in a van opposite of Jakes. They were geared up to take down Clayton and his crew after Paul and Mike gave them the signal. Jenny had “volunteered” her services to help ensure that the surveillance and equipment was working for their op with Anders. But she was really there to keep an eye on her brother and Mike. This operation was hopefully going to lead them to Juan Badillo’s missing car, and the tape that could either incriminate or clear Paul Briggs from Juan’s disappearance.

She was filled with nervous energy as she hooked up Mike and Paul to their transmitters. Mike barely took his eyes off Paul, watching every movement closely like a wildlife expert. “I’ve learned that you don’t listen to what Paul says,” He told her the night before. “You watch what he does.” And he was truly trying to demonstrate that.

When she had placed a watch transmitter on Paul, she spoke softly. “This is fresh out of the box. So there should be no more _convenient_ loss of transmissions.”

Paul swallowed thickly. “Good.” He was extremely nervous. He had to get to the tape before Mike did. The night before, he had talked Jakes into taking down Mike first, so he could swipe the tape before he got to the car. But he still had a feeling that something would go wrong. And then, he could tell Jenny was acting suspiciously towards him. Had Mike told her about his investigation? Had she told him about what happened? Was she working with him? Though it was never announced, everyone at Graceland knew that Jenny and Mike liked each other. Had he seduced her and turned her against him?

“If you get in trouble,” She made direct eye contact with him. “You know you can call me, right?”

From her tone, he knew that she wasn’t talking about the robbery they were just about to do. “Thanks, Jenn.” Briggs nodded, trying to offer a smile, but was unsuccessful. There was too much riding on this one op.

Now, Jenny sat patiently in a van, chewing on her thumbnail as they waited for Mike and Paul to be picked up by Anders. Johnny was right. The house was falling apart.

“Alright, I’m going to take Mike and Briggs,” Jakes was informing the other agents in the van. “You and the team take the rest.”

“Wow,” Jenny guffawed bitterly. “You’re really sticking your neck out there, huh?”

He looked at her carefully. Did she know? “I don’t half-ass this, alright? I sell it. Attacking him to the ground, putting cuffs on him, throwing him the back of the squad car, the works.”

“Great.” She turned her body away from him. Jakes let the rest of the agents finish gearing up, while he leaned closer to her.

“I’m here, you know. Y’all want me to step and be a part of the house. Well, this is me stepping up.”

“Oh, you’re stepping up.” Jenny turned back towards him. “But at the same time, you are dividing the house, so I'm not sure how much good you are actually doing.”

Jakes finally understood. Jenny did know about Paul. Or at least suspected something. “So, Levi used his magical blue-eyed charm on you, then.”

“Oh, god.” She waved a dismissive hand. “You think I didn’t suspect anything before Mike turned up?”

“He’s your brother, Jenn.”

“Yeah, I know, Dale, you don't need to explain that part to me. I wanted to believe that this was all a big understanding, but when we saw you at the donut shop…”

“You were there?”

Jenny bit her tongue. Dammit. “Yeah, I was.”

“Car is approaching.” One of the agents reported, cutting off their conversation from going further. Jenny looked up and saw a red sports car drive up to where Mike and Paul stood.

Mike and Paul spoke to what they confirmed to be Anders, who was driving the vehicle. He told them the getaway car was a “boring” Crown Vic, which caused both Jakes and Jenny to sit up straighter. Mike tried to call in the TAC team then, but Paul convinced him that if they nabbed him then, they probably would never see the car again. Reluctantly, Mike and Paul got into the car.

“Okay, tail ‘em.” Jakes ordered, as the driver of the van followed behind the red car.

They were able to keep a close enough tail on the car to keep up with it, but not too close that Anders would suspect anything. Finally, they pulled up to a strip mall, and the van pulled off onto a side parking lot. Luckily, it was covered with overgrown trees that allowed them to stay mostly hidden.

“Are they really about hit a massage parlor?” Jenny asked, listening in on Anders giving orders to Paul and Mike and his other crony he had enlisted for the job.

“Looks like it.” Jakes nodded towards the car, which all the riders were now exiting. Mike was just pulling a mask over his face as Paul held up a sawed-off shotgun. “We just gotta let it play out.”

She snickered. “You’re starting to sound like Paul.”

“I’m not picking sides, if that is what you are suggesting. I don’t have skin in the game like you do.”

“What happened to being a part of the house?”

“What happened to minding your business?” He spat back. “Just because I keep to myself, that does not make me an asshole.”

“Okay, well, when your brother is accused of causing a disappearance of a federal agent, then you can come and cast judgement on me. Until then, you let me do what I need to do.”

The two of them sat in angry silence, listening to the robbery taking place. Paul and Mike were on crowd control, so they were barking orders to the patrons of the parlor to stay still, while Anders and the other guy made a dash for the cash. After a couple minutes, Anders walked out the front door with a stuffed bag in his hand. “Okay, there’s the cash. Do we move in now?” Jenny asked.

“Not yet.” Jakes held out a hand as he listened to the transmission.

“What are you doing?” They heard Paul yell, frustration very real and present in his tone.

“What are you two up to?” Jakes asked but directed towards Jenny.

She shot him an innocent look. “He’s a big boy.” The night before, Mike and Jenny talked about how they could ensure that they would be able to get to the tape first. They both knew that if Briggs got his hands on it, they would never see it again. So they had made a plan, an insurance if you will. Mike had handcuffed Paul to a heavy bookshelf, trying to buy himself some time.

“If you’re innocent, let me prove it.” They heard Mike say. “If not, then you better shoot me right now. Sorry, man.” Then, after a couple of seconds, they saw him run towards the red car.

“So, I guess you’re the one who’s picking sides then.” Jakes seethed at Jenny, as Mike got into the car.

“I’m trying to find the truth, Jakes. What are you trying to do?” She challenged him, motioning for the driver to start the car.

Jakes mumbled as he exited the van quickly, a small team of agents behind him. They made their way into the salon, while Jenny and the rest of the team followed the red car. A part of her wanted to stay behind and talk with Paul. But she knew that she would get more information from the missing car anyway.

This time, the red car was taking more turns, making it slightly harder to keep track of them without making it obvious. “I can’t keep up.” The driver called over his shoulder.

Jenny pulled out her laptop and clicked away. “Warren’s wearing a tracker. Ease back while I trace him.” After a couple of seconds, she was able to pull up the tracker. “Okay, take a left here.”

She was able to guide them until the tracker stopped moving. That must be where they were going to switch cars. “Let me see your hands.” She heard Mike order.

“What the hell are you doing?” Anders asked incredulously.

“I’m a federal agent, dumbass.” Mike barked at him, causing Jenny to fight a smile. Maybe her sassiness was rubbing off on him. “I’ve got eyes on the car, Jenny.”

Luckily, the van pulled around the corner then and saw the two men on their knees with their hands in the air, Mike pointing his gun at them. Once the car parked, everyone spilled out like clowns in a clown car. Jenny pushed past the agents going to place handcuffs on the two perps on the ground, and up to Mike. “You okay?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, his focus was up a few feet ahead of them. Jenny followed his gaze until she saw it too. The brown 2013 Crown Vic. Juan Badillo’s car. Sitting right there in front of them. Jenny felt like a rock had dropped into her stomach. “Moment of truth.” He said, reaching inside the van they had just come from for a crowbar.

She followed close behind him, as they sauntered towards the infamous car. Jenny couldn’t help but look around, almost expecting Paul to be standing there. Waiting to bend over laughing, saying everything was just some elaborate, sick joke. To finally admit why he was acting so funny. To hug Jenny close and apologize for putting her through hell. But there was no Paul to be seen. Only the car and the secrets it held inside.

Mike opened the passenger door. If Juan had set up a recorder in his car, then he would have stashed it in his glove compartment, as was his training to do so. Mike fiddled the glove compartment open with the crowbar, while Jenny stood beside him, holding her breath the entire time. Once he got the compartment open, Mike could barely believe his eyes. There was nothing in there. He only saw maps and registration papers, but no recording device. He stuck his hand inside, feeling around for any secret compartment or sign of a recorder that could be hidden from his view. Nothing. He sighed in defeat.

“Where is it?” Jenny asked, seeing the same thing he was. The rock in her stomach grew larger. “Where is the recorder?”

Mike got out of the car, placing his hands on his hips in thought. There was no recorder. Did Paul get there before them? That was impossible. He had handcuffed him to a bookshelf, he had caught him in the middle of trying to get with Anders, there was no way Briggs could have got that tape before them. But it wasn’t here. Was it ever there to begin with? He looked back at Jenny. “I think the better question is… where the hell is Briggs?”

As if on cue, Jenny’s phone pinged. She looked down at her phone to see that it was a text from Paul. The rock in her stomach was no longer a rock. It was a large boulder. He had only sent two words.

_I’m sorry._


	19. Run

“He’s running.” Jenny leaned against the side of the van. She and Mike had just discovered Juan’s car without the supposed recording of his death. Whether Paul had anything to do with that, they still didn’t know for sure.

“You don’t know that.” Mike tried to say. But he knew she was probably right.

“He thinks we have the tape.” She droned, staring down at the ground. With all that had happened within the last 24 hours, she no longer felt guilty, angry, or worried. Just numb. “He thinks he’s out of a job. He thinks I betrayed him. Why wouldn’t he run?” Mike picked up his phone and dialed Briggs’ number. “He won’t answer. I’ve already called him three times.”

“It’s worth a try.” But she was right about that, too. After multiple attempts to call or text him, Paul would not respond. With a grunt, he gave up and stared at his phone. There was only one thing left to do. He didn’t want to do it, because it was a pretty big card to play. But he couldn’t see any other way. He gave Jenny an almost apologetic look. “I need to call it in.”

She didn’t meet his gaze, still staring at the ground. 24 hours ago, she might have screamed in his face. Attacked him and beaten him to the ground. But now, she only felt numb. Nothing. “Yeah, you do.” She moved to sit in the van, but he caught her arm.

“Jenny…”

“Do your job, Mike.” Jenny said, finally looking him in the eye. “It’s okay.” Finally, she retreated into the car. She slumped into a seat and pulled the door shut behind her, away from the hustle and bustle of the bust of Clayton Anders that was occurring outside. Her ears almost rang with the sudden silence that surrounded her. With all of the craziness that was happening, she needed a place to try and sort out what was happening. Paul was probably guilty of hurting Juan Badillo. There was almost no doubt in her mind now. But that couldn’t begin to cover all the weird behavior that exhibited in the last few weeks. If he was capable of causing the disappearance of a federal agent, what else was he capable of? Did she ever really know him? When her phone pinged again, it almost sounded like screaming. She looked at it and saw the thing that haunted her nightmares. _“APB on Federal Agent Paul Briggs…”_

>>>

“What the hell do you not understand about ‘detain on sight’?” Mike asked Johnny. They were standing Paul’s room. Jenny stared at a punched-out hole in the wall. They found Paul’s phone sitting nicely on his bed. No sign of Paul anywhere.

“It was Paul, man.” Johnny argued. He had received the notification about the APB right when Paul was walking out the door. Johnny had brought it up to him, but he shrugged it off. Even when Johnny had tried to pull a gun on him to detain him, Paul talked his way out the door. It didn't sit right with Johnny to let him leave, but it also didn't sit right to cuff one of his best friends. “What the hell is going on?”

Jenny could barely hear their argument. Ever since getting that text from Paul, she felt like she was floating through water. All the sounds in the world sounded muffled, the images distorted. Some experts might have called it shock. But Jenny would have called it ‘coming to terms with reality’. She turned to leave the room, wanting to escape to her own, when she saw Jakes walking up the stairs.

“Dale?” She acknowledged, catching Johnny and Mike’s attention. DJ stopped on the top step and shifted uncomfortably. Mike and Johnny came out of Paul’s room, Jenny close behind.

“Where is he?” Mike demanded.

“You going to let me in my house?” Jakes asked.

“Where the hell is my brother, Dale Jakes?” Jenny’s voice was low and commanding.

“You need to understand the severity of the situation.” Mike added. “You could get three years for accessory.”

Dale squared his jaw defensively. “I gave a friend a ride. That’s it.”

“Where?” Jenny inched closer to him, staring him dead in the face. DJ purposefully avoided her gaze. He felt cornered, gripping his hands into fists before he realized it. But still, he kept his mouth shut.

“He didn’t even know that we didn’t find the recording.” Mike said. “It screams guilty.”

“Y’all didn’t find it?” He asked. Judging from the look on his face, they could tell he was just as surprised to hear it as he sounded.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Johnny was now pacing back and forth. “First, I have to deal with Charlie and her punk-ass federale and now this?” All eyes turned to him.

“Charlie’s messing with a federale?” DJ questioned.

“Yeah,” He nodded, rubbing his temples.

“Who is he?” Paige asked, who had been in her room but came out when she heard all of the commotion in the hallway.

“I don’t know. Some guy she’s been hanging out with.”

“When were you going to tell us that?” She started to argue with him, before Mike hollered over them.

“Look! The FBI is sending a team over right now.” He turned and faced Jakes once again. “I suggest you be here for that.”

“Tell your team I’ll be in my room.” He toed up with Mike, showing that he was not afraid. He then pushed past him to disappear into his room.

But Jenny grabbed a hold of his arm. “Dale, please. Tell me where my brother is.” She pleaded, feeling her eyes well up with tears. Normally, she might have tried to hide them, but she no longer cared about appearing tough for the house.

Dale looked back at her, feeling a twinge of sympathy for her. He could tell her that he dropped Briggs off at the docks, that he was getting on board a ship to take him far away from here. But he made a promise. And he had to keep a secret. “I’m sorry, Jenn.”

Jenny felt like one of those volcanoes that kids make for science fairs. She felt what felt like magma boil from her torso and up her spine. When it reached her head, she could feel the steam pouring out of her ears. She snapped. In a flash, her fist connected with Dale’s jaw, stunning him enough for him to barely register it at first. He fell back a little, as Jenny grabbed and screamed at him in a white-hot rage. “YOU SON OF A BITCH!” Mike grabbed Jenny by her waist, as Johnny and Paige pulled Jakes away from her wild flailing. “Tell me where he is, dammit!” Before Mike dragged her away, she was able to kick him in the knee, causing him to bend over and yelp in pain. “You tell me where he is right now!”

Johnny and Paige accompanied him to his room, while Mike held Jenny close to him, trying to offer what little comfort he could. She fought against him for a brief moment, until the magma turned to tears. She collapsed in his arms and sobbed into his chest, feeling all the emotions flooding back at once. Mike felt a hint of responsibility for causing this kind of drama in the house. And he felt immense sympathy for Jenny. She was not an emotional person, he knew that. She wanted to make the world see how tough and capable she was, no matter how small in stature she might appear. But now, she was like a sobbing child throwing a temper tantrum. But it wasn’t a temper tantrum. It was mourning. She was mourning the loss of her brother. A single tear formed in his eye, as he placed a gentle kiss on top of head, as she continued to scream cry into his shirt.

>>>

“Okay, this is Agent Clark, investigating into the disappearance of Agent Paul Briggs eight days ago. I am now interviewing his sister, Jennifer Briggs.” Agent Clark spoke into the recorder in front of him and opened a notepad to a fresh sheet of paper.

Jenny sat across from him, the annoyance of her being there was practically written all over her face. “Okay, let’s get this over with. Every minute I’m in here with you, is a minute I’m not out there looking for my brother.”

The man across from her sighed. “Look, let’s just calm down, ma’am.”

“Do not tell me to calm down, Agent Clark. My brother is on the lam and is being accused of horrific things. I will not be calm and I will not apologize for it.”

After making a quick note on his notepad, Clark leaned his elbows on the table. “Let’s just get started, shall we? What do you know of Mike Warren’s investigation into Paul Briggs?”

She huffed out a breath to blow hair out of her face. “Mike told me about it two weeks ago.”

“And did you tell Paul of the investigation?”

“No, Mike did.”

“Mike told Briggs that he was being investigated by the FBI?”

“What, is there an echo in here? Yes, he told him a couple days before he disappeared.”

Clark swallowed a retort and continued his questioning. “And why were you staying in Graceland?”

“I was visiting my brother. Next question.” Jenny was really trying to come across as unhelpful as possible. Her hope was that Clark would eventually give up and turn her loose. He had already talked to everyone else in the house, she was the last to be interrogated.

“Did you plan on staying for…” He looked back over the other pages in his notepad. “Six weeks?”

“No, but while I was visiting, Paul asked me to help out with a case, so I stayed behind to help him, as part of my freelance work.”

“At any point in time, did Paul disclose to you that he was planning on running?”

“No.”

“He didn’t tell his own sister? No warning or casual mention of any sort?”

“You know, we’d be able to get through this a lot faster if you stop repeating the same questions over and over again. Paul didn’t tell me a damn thing. Now move along.”

“So instead, he confided in Dale Jakes?”

Jenny sighed, still seething at the notion that Dale knew more about Paul than she did. “Yes. Apparently, they have formed some sort of bromance.”

“So were you aware that Jakes gave Briggs a ride to the port on the day of disappearance?”

She paused, clamping down on the inside of her cheek. The next time she saw Jakes, she would rip his throat out. “He said he gave a friend a ride. But he did not specify where.” She leaned forward and muttered to herself, “The bastard.”

“He provided Briggs with a boat as transportation out of the country.” Clark went on to explain.

“Yeah, I think that was clear when you said they went to the port.” She snapped. “So why are you talking to me instead of the Coast Guard or the Navy?”

“Ms. Briggs…”

“ _Agent_ Briggs.” She corrected. “I may not officially belong to the Bureau, but I did get through the Academy and I worked very hard to earn my badge, _Mr._ Clark.”

“Your brother is in a very dangerous situation.” He told her. “We want to find him, just as much as you do, but we cannot do that if you are going to be uncooperative.”

“The difference between you and me, is that when I find him, I’m not going to throw him into a jail cell.” _Instead,_ she thought to herself _. I’ll throw him into the goddamn ocean for abandoning me_. “And if you really want to find him, then why don’t you just get the one question you’ve been burning to ask me out of the way.”

After Clark regarded her carefully from across the table, he asked, “Why did Briggs run?”

She smiled. “There. Now we’re asking the right questions. He ran because he thought we had found a tape that had recorded him killing Juan Badillo. But we didn’t find anything.”

“And when you say ‘we’…”

“Agent Warren and I. We were able to track down Juan’s missing car, but there was no recording device to be seen. But before we could let Paul know that, he was already in the wind.”

Clark quickly made a few notes before leaning back in his chair. “And what exactly is the nature of your relationship with Agent Warren?”

She looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“From the other testimonies of the members of your house, rumor is you two have grown quite close. Almost intimately.”

Jenny slumped against the back of her chair and laughed bitterly. “And how is that relevant to this case?”

“It just seems rather odd to me, _Agent_ Briggs, that your involvement with this case seems parallel with the intimate relations you and Agent Warren have engaged in.”

“Holy shit, you really don’t know anything, do you?” She set her jaw defiantly. “My relationship, or lack thereof, with Agent Warren has nothing to do with why my brother ran away. There is no conspiracy, there is no fatal affair. So, are we done here?” She rose to leave.

“Look, we need to explore every angle that we can, Ms. Briggs. We are talking about the potential shutdown of Graceland itself.” He tried to stop her.

Jenny slammed her fist on the table aggressively. “Agent Briggs!” She commanded. “I do not need the severity of the situation mansplained to me. I am going to leave this room now, in search of my brother, and when you find anything solid, you can ask me anything you want. But I am not about to sit here and confirm or deny your erotic conspiracy theories.” Jenny stomped over to the door, while Agent Clark rose to his feet.

“We are not done. I have more questions to ask you.” He called after her.

By then, she had already opened the door. Still holding the door open, she turned back to face him. “I was brought in for questioning and not placed under arrest, therefore, I am free to leave whenever I choose, as is my American right. You need to stop wasting your time with me and get out there and look for my brother. Until then, you can kiss my ass.” Jenny slammed the door behind her, finally leaving Agent Clark in a tizzy. When she stepped through, she saw the rest of the house looking at her with mixed expressions. Charlie and Paige were looking at her with pride. Whereas Jakes, Mike, and Johnny had their jaws on the floor. “Well, come on, then.” Jenny addressed the group. “Let’s go home.”


	20. Solace

“Excuse me, that is very expensive equipment that needs to be handled with care.” Jenny was scolding one of the agents that was tasked with searching her room. A team of investigators were going through everyone’s room at Graceland. They were in the middle of turning their room’s upside down in search for some sort of clue as to where Paul Briggs had disappeared to. Everyone was waiting in the sitting area of the second floor watching their rooms being ripped apart. Except for Jenny who was standing outside her door, yelling at the investigators to not break her various devices.

“Ma’am, we’re going to need you to take a step back.” The investigator addressed her at long last. He had done a good job of ignoring her constant berating, but he had reached his breaking point. “Or you will be detained for interfering with an investigation.”

Jenny grunted, knowing that he was right. “Fine, but I swear if I come back and find anything broken, I’ll be taking your ass to court.” She stormed over to the sitting area and joined the group, still keeping an eye in her room.

“Hope you don’t have anything incriminating in there.” Charlie nodded towards her own room, currently being ransacked.

“Nah,” Johnny responded. “Just some old ass Chinese take-out.”

“That’s gross, Johnny.” Jenny grimaced.

Jakes came up the stairs and went to go to his room but was stopped by one of the investigators. “No, it’s cool. I live here.”

“You have to wait.” Charlie told him, taking a seat on one of the couches.

“You gotta be kidding me.” He remarked looking around. Jenny did not look towards him, still holding a grudge against him for the part he played in Paul’s disappearance.

Paige shrugged, showing that she didn’t like it anymore than he did. “You have to wait until they finish sweeping.”

He sighed and turned his gaze towards the ceiling. Johnny also slid down onto the couch next to Charlie. “They’re trying to find any evidence of collusion with Briggs.” He explained.

“Yeah, like there’s going to be a box labeled ‘Collusion, FBI Keep Out’ stashed in our room.” Jenny snorted.

“Well, Mikey,” Jakes gestured to Mike, who was standing off to the side with his arms crossed. “I’m sure they’ll let you through.”

“No, I’m not on their team.”

“Aren’t you their little rat, though?” Johnny asked him.

“That’s enough, you two.” Charlie stepped in, as Jenny reached over and slapped him on the knee.

“He’s a snitch.” Jakes argued.

“You lost your right to judge when you took Paul to the port, Dale.” Jenny spat at him.

“Yeah, and you gave up yours when you started banging the rat.” Dale spat back at her. Mike uncrossed his arms, while Johnny and Paige tried to “whoa” everyone to calm down. Jenny threw her hands out to the sides in exasperation. Did everyone know about their “fling”?

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, man.” Mike took a step closer towards Jakes, who then took another step towards him.

“Boy, stand down.” Jakes told him, as the two of them squared off, daring each other to take a swing.

“Or what?” Mike was not about to back off. Johnny and Paige tried to tell them to stop. Charlie yelled at them to stop acting like monkeys. Jenny took the responsibility to physically step between the two men, pushing each of them away from each other. Jakes flicked her hand away aggressively.

“Knock it off, Dale.” Jenny ordered.

“He’s right, though.” Johnny spoke up. “You and Mike practically pushed Paul out.”

“You really think he’s innocent?” Jenny asked him, as the two men she just separated tried to walk off their pent-up anger.

“Hell yeah.” He nodded. “Look, Paul don’t deal drugs and he don’t kill FBI agents.”

“And you don’t run when you’re innocent.” Paige chimed in.

“What about _The Fugitive_?” Johnny questioned.

“That’s a movie, Johnny.” Jakes rolled his eyes.

“Okay, stop it!” Jenny erupted, silencing everyone. “We need to stop pointing fingers at each other and we need to stop getting mad at everyone. If you want to be mad someone, be mad at the person who isn’t here. Paul didn’t leave one or two of us, he left all of us behind. He is the one who caused all of this. So, whether you like or not, the six of us, we are stuck in this together. If we are going to find him, then we need to swallow our damn egos and put our differences aside.”

“Okay, we’re done with the rooms.” An investigator told them, rather timidly. He could feel the tension in the room as he entered it. “We’ll get out of your hair now.”

“Thank you,” Everyone said, but almost no one said it sincerely. The investigators slowly started to filter out of their rooms and down the stairs.

“It doesn’t matter. We’re not going to be together for much longer anyway.” Charlie muttered, standing up from the couch.

“What does that mean?” Johnny asked concerned.

She gave him a look. “That means that they’re not going to keep letting us surf and pay utilities around here like nothing ever happened.”

“It’s like what Clark said.” Paige nodded solemnly. “With Briggs in the wind, Graceland is burned.”

“Well, it’s not like there’s much to save here anyway.” Jakes remarked as he moved to go to his room.

“Dale Jakes.” Charlie said his name, like a mother scolding her child.

He decided to ignore and turned to Johnny. “Come on, Johnny. No rousing half-time speech?” Johnny stared down at his hands that were folded in his lap, feeling a wave of sadness come over him.

“Don’t be an asshole, Jakes.” Jenny reprimanded him. “What did I just say?” Jakes held up his hands and slinked off to his room, ready to put this whole place behind him. This was the reason why he didn’t like to form friendships with people. When things turn ugly, they get real ugly.

“Guys, we can still save the house if we find Briggs.” Mike tried to say encouragingly.

“Are you serious?” Johnny finally stood up. For the first time since knowing him, Jenny could see a look of defeat in his eye.

“Yes, I’m serious.” Mike insisted. “And if I’m right, they won’t have to shut down Graceland.”

Johnny shook his head and dragged his feet towards his room. “There is no way of finding Briggs.”

“Johnny, are you really giving up?” Charlie called after him. The shutting of his bedroom door answered her question. “Well, I better go make sure they didn’t touch my dirty underwear pile.” She said. “If you get wind of anything, Mikey, you come find me.”

“Ditto.” Paige stood as she spoke. “I don’t want to leave Graceland just as much as the rest of us. So whatever you need, I’m there.” The two women vanished to their rooms, leaving Mike and Jenny alone.

“Charlie’s right, though.” Jenny said, feeling a similar feeling of defeat as Johnny. “Even if we do find Paul, do you really think they’re going to let us all stay here?”

“It’s worth a shot.” Mike shrugged. “Don’t you want to find him?”

“Of course, I want to find him. If anything, so I can beat his ass for leaving me. But…” She moved to go fix her room. “At this point, I don’t know how much good it’s going to do.”

Jenny left him and closed the door behind her. She scanned the room seeing everything turned over and strewn haphazardly on the floor. Luckily, as she looked over her collection of computers and devices, it appeared that nothing was broken or missing. It took her a total of twenty minutes to put everything back in its place. Jenny never considered herself a tidy person, but she did insist on her belongings having a certain place. While she went about cleaning and reorganizing, she let her mind wander.

Sure, it was no surprise to not hear from Paul in a week. Hell, Jenny figured his record of no contact had to have been at least a year. But even when he didn’t talk to her. She could still find him. Track his cell phone, look into his financial records, ask someone else at Graceland how he was doing. But she couldn’t do that this time. He had left behind his cell phone when he split, no doubt picking up a burner somewhere along the way. He had also probably collected some cash, since there was no reported activity on his bank or credit cards. Chances are when Jakes gave him a lift to the port, he stocked him with a new ID, passport, and everything; one of the advantages of working for Customs. He could be anywhere in the world, using a different name. He was such an expert with undercover work, he could probably continue like that for several years. Since his disappearance, Jenny called all of her contacts from federal agencies to gangbangers on the streets to freaking Interpol. No one had found any trace of Paul Briggs. He was a ghost.

Jenny then thought about what she had told Mike. Would it really be worth it to bring him back to Graceland? Would he be arrested? Would he get his badge revoked? Surely, running from the law was going to earn some form of punishment, but what? And what would that mean to the rest of the house? Finally satisfied with her room, she decided to go pick Mike’s brain. He seemed keen enough to find Paul, maybe his super smart brain already had an idea of where to look.

She found him in his room sitting on his bed, papers scatter all around him. “What are you working on?” Jenny asked, entering the room and regarding the mess of papers. 

“What do you think?” He muttered; his brow furrowed in thought.

“Jakes said he put him on a boat.” She told him. “He’s probably on a different continent by now.”

“You’re not going to find Paul Briggs on any map.” He said, looking over his shoulder at a map he had hung from one of his bookshelves.

“Yeah, well, I’ve scanned the digital maps at least. Came up empty.”

“I’m going to find him up here.” He pointed to his head, as Jenny raised her eyebrows in concern. Had he finally lost his mind? “You know about the Estate, right?”

“Yeah, I told you that.” She nodded carefully.

“Did you also know about Lisa?”

She bit her lip, and nodded slowly, dropping her gaze to the ground. Of course, she knew about Lisa. Paul was head over heels in love with her. It was also a time in his life when he was actually keeping in contact with Jenny. Every time he did call, he could practically talk of nothing but Lisa. Jenny had only met her once, trying to get a feel for her, see who this “wonder woman” her brother loved so much. She had been perfect for him. Not only was she breathtakingly beautiful, but she was smart, tough, and hilariously funny. Jenny couldn’t help but give her stamp of approval of Lisa. So when she found out about the Estate burning down with Lisa inside, she understood why Paul was so broken up. He had lost the love of his life. “Yes,” She admitted aloud. “I knew Lisa.”

“You didn’t tell me about her.” He pointed out.

“Yeah, because it had nothing to do with your investigation. It was a completely horrible tragedy, and Paul was hardly the same after she died. I didn’t want to go blabbing that to the world.”

“They were roommates.” The way he said it almost sounded like a question, but they both knew he wasn’t asking.

“Yeah,” Jenny crossed her arms. “She was… practically his entire world. It nearly broke him. Now, you can see why I was a little reluctant with you. And why I didn’t want Paul to know anything… I didn’t want to… trigger anything for him.”

He nodded slowly. For a while, he had thought that he was the one who had tried to keep a barrier between them. But now he realized that they both did. But then, he got what could only be described as a lightbulb moment. “It may not have had anything to do with my investigation,” Mike stood as he tapped his chin in thought. “But it may have everything to do with why he ran away.”

She looked up at him. “What?”

“It all makes sense.” He started talking wildly as he sifted through the papers on his bed. “He’s here, Jenn. He’s always been here. He never left.”

“What are you talking about?” Jenny asked incredulously. If Paul had gone through all of this trouble, just to stick around town, she was going to be beyond pissed.

But he barely registered her question, still digging through the many different pages. “Jangles got to... Then Jangles killed her... he would have never let that go… He would have try to….”

“Mike, Mike.” Jenny slid towards him and grabbed him by the shoulders, forcing him to look at her. “Stop talking in fragments. I need complete sentences.”

“Jangles killed Lisa.” He finally said, sorting through the pages in his hand.

“What do you mean he killed Lisa? Lisa died in a fire.”

He handed her one of the papers in his hand and pointed to a specific line. “Yeah, but the official cause of the fire was improperly stored gasoline and faulty wiring. How many federal agents do you know that don’t know how to properly store gas?”

“Okay, so maybe _someone_ caused the fire, but we don’t know that it was Jangles.” She pushed the paper back to him.

“What if Paul suspects it was Jangles? What if all this was just a charade to get back at him?”

“Yeah, and what if all of this was just Paul being an asshole and hiding from potentially incriminating evidence against him?” She countered.

He regarded her in disbelief. “I can’t believe you, of all people, are against me on this.”

“I’m not against you, Mike. I want to find Paul more than anything else. But I am also reasonable.”

“You think it’s unreasonable that Paul wouldn’t want to go after Jangles? After all he did?”

“Of course, that’s reasonable. I just don’t think that he would risk everything to disappear into thin air, just to track him down. There are so many different ways to find someone that doesn’t involve being David Copperfield.” She gestured to herself. “Including enlisting your very talented sister to help.” Mike shook his head. He couldn’t shake that he was on to something. He turned back to the piles of papers, hoping that he could come across something else that could help him. “Mike?” She reached out grabbed him by the shoulders again. “Mike, stop thinking. Stop theorizing. Just stop. You have done everything a good little soldier is able to do.”

He gave her a rueful smile. “Well, Juan’s dead, the house is burned, and Briggs is on the lam, and it’s all because I wasn’t good enough at my job.”

Her face fell, as she finally understood all of his behavior. “Is that what this is about?” She asked, as he dropped his head. “God, Mike. You know, for a smart guy, you’re actually really stupid.”

“It’s true, Jenny.” He shrugged her hands off his shoulders and took a step back. “If I had done what I was supposed to, then…”

“Oh, so we’re going to play the ‘what if’ game, then?” She placed her hands on her hips. “Okay, what if I had never come to visit my brother at all? What if Paul never went to Mexico? What if you flunked out of the Academy? What if a meteor came down and wiped out the entire planet? There are a lot of ‘what ifs’ in life, Mike, but spending time dwelling on the ‘what ifs’ will not help you move forward.” She took a breath, watching him still mentally kick himself. So she decided to take a gentler approach, inching her feet towards him. “Look, maybe you’re right. Maybe Paul is hunting down Jangles as we speak. Or maybe he’s dipping scones in some tea in a quaint little coffee shop off the coast of Spain. Who knows, really? But chasing wild theories will not help us bring back Paul and it will not save Graceland. But none of that is your fault. You are smart, Mike. If anyone can figure this whole… mess of a situation out, it’s you. But you need to be grounded in reality. Paul Briggs is the main character of this story. He is the cause and effect. Mike Warren is just… a supporting character.”

Mike looked back at her, feeling slightly better about himself. He reached out and brushed her hair out of her face. “So you don’t hate me?”

She let out a small chuckle but maintained eye contact with him. “No. I… I could never hate you, Mike. Believe me, I’ve tried.” They both allowed themselves a little laugh.

Mike rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes, as if he was trying to connect with her psychically. A rare moment of solace and peace. It was strange how being in each other’s presence almost comforted them. Jenny felt stable. Mike felt normal. “I am sorry. About everything.” He whispered to her softly.

“Me, too.” She nodded, pulling her head away just enough to look up into his eyes once again. “You deserve better.”

Mike could no longer stand the distance between them. He brought his lips to hers, tenderly cradling her head. Jenny felt herself melt into him. With the highs and lows of the last few days, they both realized how much they really needed this. What started as one tender kiss grew to more and multiplied by the minute, slowly their hands reaching and feeling their way around the other person’s body, like a blind person reading Braille.

“We should stop,” Mike tried to pull away, hearing the voices in his head telling him to get the hell out of there.

But Jenny held his head still. “No, I don’t want to.” She brought her mouth to his again, trying to convey the need she felt. With all the uncertainty the future held for her, the two of them, the house, she wanted to make the most of what little time they might have. “Do you?” She asked, separating from him just enough so he could answer.

His brain was screaming at him. All of his federal training told him to stop right now and walk away before anything else happened. “No,” is what he said aloud, listening to the rest of his body. He forcefully silenced his brain as the two of them tumbled onto his bed, wrapped firmly in each other’s embrace.


	21. Rescue

Mike stared at the ceiling; Jenny asleep on his chest. He was grateful she was able to sleep, because she sure as hell needed it, but he was unable to settle in. The whole situation with Paul weighed too heavily on him. It wasn’t always this intense. He reflected on his entire time at Graceland. His first day, meeting all of his housemates, Juan Badillo, his time with Bello, meeting Jenny, following Briggs to an anonymous addict meeting… everything. It flashed in his memory like scenes in a movie. His blue eyes were fixed upward, as if the movie was projecting on his ceiling. Everything that had happened made him who he was today, good and bad. It had all led him to this moment in time. But the crescendo of the intensity seemed to increase with every passing day.

 _What is Briggs’ game?_ He thought. He knew that he had to be right about Paul sticking around to find Jangles. They knew he was in town since the whole Bello bust happened. And even though he was bleeding out at the time, he was pretty sure Jangles and Paul were able to take a glance at each other. They both knew of each other’s existence. Would Jangles have stuck around after Bello, in hopes of getting at Briggs? Would Briggs really be so reckless as to go after a known hitman? He wasn’t sure exactly how, but Lisa, Jangles, and Paul were all connected somehow, and it was the main cause behind the disappearing act.

Jenny stirred slightly and turned over to her other side, her back now facing him. Mike looked over at her still sleeping figure. He should have never gotten involved with her. If Graceland was about to be shut down, he would surely be shipped back to D.C. and she… would she go with him? Would she go on a manhunt for Paul? There was a lot between them that they hadn’t discussed. Like… how to categorize their relationship. Friends with benefits? Dating? Casual? Serious? No longer able to lie still, Mike carefully got up, moving as quietly as he could over to his desk where his computer sat.

When he opened it, all the files of the agents that died in the fire at the Estate were still there from the last time he had looked them up. He stared at the screen intently, letting his brain try to work through all the possibilities. If his theory about chasing Jangles was right, then Paul would be on the lookout for him. Maybe even tracking his whereabouts. He started to search through police reports to see if anything had come up in relation to Jangles. After that search came up empty, he tried to expand his search down into Mexico. After all, that was his home territory. After reading a bunch of news articles about reported Jangles killings, he noticed one name kept coming up. Raphael Cortes. He was a federale, who was quoted as working the Jangles case for over ten years. Johnny had mentioned something a federale being involved with Charlie. Could she be trying to find Jangles too?

By then, his brain was overloaded with theories. The sun was just starting to rise, so he decided that maybe he would go on a run to help clear his mind. Again, careful not to wake Jenny, he got dressed and quietly snuck out of the room.

>>>

Jenny woke up a few hours later to an empty bedroom. No Mike in sight. Glancing at her phone, she saw that he had texted her. _Went out for some air. Be back soon_. She sighed and slumped against one of Mike’s pillows. Her brother was missing in action, and being hunted down by the FBI, and she was screwing Mike. Not exactly a top priority. Before she could let herself dwell on things further, Paige popped her head in the room.

“Hey, girl.” She greeted with a smile.

“Jesus, Paige.” Jenny clutched the covers over her bare chest. “I know that Graceland is nearly dead, but do we have to throw _knocking_ out the window, too?”

“Where’s your Romeo?” She asked, sliding into the room, noticing the mess of papers, maps, and clothes around the room.

“Out.” Jenny sat herself up, still trying to maintain modesty. Paige wouldn’t have mind, but she still felt like some privacy was necessary. “And don’t call him that.”

“What did you guys do?” Paige gestured to the unusual sight of mess in Mike’s room, who was notorious for keeping things neat and tidy.

“This wasn’t me, okay. I found him like this. He’s kind of gone little crazy trying to crack this Paul thing.”

“Yeah, no kidding.”

“What do you want, Paige?” She yawned.

“I just wanted to see if you guys found out anything. And confirming the rumors that you two are boning.” She flashed her a playful smile.

Jenny rolled her eyes. “Boning? Really? You sound like Johnny.”

“Hey, no judgement here.” She held up her hands and sat down on the bed next to her. “He’s hot, so good for you.”

Guess there was no use trying to play pretend anymore. Paige had once told her that her and Mike were the worst kept secret in Graceland, and with all the shit that been going down lately, their “relationship” didn’t seem to be that much of a scandal. “Well, to answer your other question, no, we didn’t find anything solid.” She told her. “Lots of wild theories and guesses, but no real leads.”

Paige nodded slowly. “And how you feeling about all this?”

Jenny shot her a look. “Since when did you become the mom of the house?”

“Can I not ask how my friend is doing, after her brother flaked out on her?” She playfully nudged her.

Jenny folded her knees up and hugged them to her chest. “I’m… doing as well as can be expected, I guess.”

Paige thought for a moment. “Well, I think I might have something to help cheer you up.” She rose to her feet again. “Get dressed and meet me downstairs in five minutes.”

She groaned. “Paige, I don’t really want…”

“Um, that was not a suggestion. That was an order.” Paige stopped at her door and gave her an intense, but playful look. “If you aren’t down there in five minutes, I’ll drag down whether you’re dressed or not.” She then skipped out the door, closing the door behind her again.

Begrudgingly, Jenny got dressed. Well, she gathered her clothes from the night before and snuck into her room for a fresh clothing. When she descended the stairs, she found that Paige was pushing the couches towards the wall. The coffee table that usually sat in the living room was now shoved up against the dining room table. “Um, what’s happening?” Jenny asked concerned.

With one last shove, Paige was able to get the couch up against the wall. She then stood up and winked. “We’re going to try and cheer you up.”

“By reorganizing the living room?” She asked, practically hearing her voice echo in the now enlarged space.

From her back pocket, Paige grabbed her phone and waved it in front of her. “What was your method of stress relief again?”

Jenny rolled her eyes. “Paige, my brother is missing. Do you really think I’m in the mood for a jam session?”

But she wasn’t listening, she was already scrolling through her music choices and hooking it up to the Bluetooth speakers she had set on the coffee table. “Let’s see, are we in a hip-hop mood? Or should we go with heavy metal?”

“Paige, seriously.” Jenny’s voice was riddled with the annoyance she felt. She moved to try and take the phone away from her, but Paige was too quick.

“Ah-ha!” Paige smiled as she found the perfect song. “Got it.” She hit play and turned up the speakers. The sound of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” started blaring into the living room.

“I’m really not in the mood.” Jenny tried to yell over the song, but Paige was grabbing her by the wrists and spinning her around.

“Just shut up, Jenny. And let Whitney work her magic.” She hollered at her, showing off her dance moves and singing to the lyrics.

After some more resistance, Jenny finally let herself go, allowing her body to move and flow. The two women were soon giggling and smiling widely, singing at the top of their lungs, and doing the worst dance moves they could think of. As much as Jenny hated to admit it, she really did need this. She was a little tone-deaf, so music was never her strong suit, but that wasn’t to say that she didn’t enjoy it. There was something so freeing about letting her body move with no embarrassment and having music fill your ears, almost to the point of causing deafness. As far as she could remember, it was one of the first times she had genuinely smiled or laughed since Paul’s disappearance. Before dwelling too much on that, though, she threw herself into dancing harder and wilder with Paige.

“What the hell are you two doing?!” Johnny caught them by surprise near the end of the song. He stood in front of them, rubbing his eyes, clearly still tired. When Paige hit the pause button, he groaned. “Can you please explain to me why you two are having a concert in the living room right now?”

“Because it’s fun.” Paige said, showing off a little dance move of her own.

“Come on, Johnny.” Jenny gasped, slightly out of breath. “Join us.”

“Hell no.” He tried to shrug his shoulders, trying to appear “cool”. “I ain’t gonna dance to some girly shit. Especially not with the house in shambles.”

“Exactly why we’re dancing in the first place.” Paige told him. “Look, if the house is burned already, why not dance on the ashes?” Jenny pointed to her, but shot Johnny a look, as if to say, “she has a point”.

Johnny shook his head, trying to hold out. But things had been nuts since Paul left. He was sad that things had fallen apart so quickly. He was in desperate need of anything joyful. “Okay, but you gonna let me pick the next song? ‘Cause I can’t handle this shit.”

“If you dare say one more thing against the late great Whitney Houston, I’ll pummel you to the ground.” Jenny warned him as Paige handed him her phone.

He decided on Shakira’s song, “Hips Don’t Lie”, which the girls were pretty happy with. They continued to jam out in the living room, letting all the stress and chaos of the last few days shake off them. Every once in a while, Johnny would try to pull either one of them closer to him, which didn’t work. They would slap his hands away or push him off. But they were having fun. Like children. A very rare occurrence at Graceland.

Finally, they all collapsed on the ground after the song ended, everyone panting like dogs. “Okay, Paige, I owe you an apology.” Jenny was able to say after catching her breath. “I really needed that.”

“Yeah, me too.” Johnny nodded and slapped her leg. “You are one smart cookie.”

“I know.” Paige jokingly bragged.

They all sat for a moment in content silence, trying to steady their breathing. “So I know Mike’s out, but what about everyone else?” Paige looked towards the stairs. “I refuse to believe Charlie and Jakes slept through all of that.”

Johnny hung his head. “Man, Charlie’s probably still out with her Federale friend.”

“Yeah, we need to know that story, by the way.” Jenny nudged him with her foot. “How did Charlie get caught up with a Federale of all people?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Apparently, they’ve been working together to try and nail down Odin.” He looked to Jenny timidly. “She… seems to think that Paul might be Odin.”

“What?” Jenny gasped. Not Charlie.

“Yeah, I know.” Johnny said. “I tried to tell her, she was crazy, but she didn’t want to listen to me. She was scoping out some place where she thought Odin or Briggs might be hiding and that’s where she ran into what’s-his-dick.”

“God, the secrets in this house.” Paige ran a hand through her hair as she processed everything.

“So that’s why she’s been so distant lately.” Jenny thought aloud. “Because she probably didn’t want Paul snooping around or try and tip me off.”

Before they could get too much further in their talk, Jenny’s phone rang. She had rested it on one of the couches when she started her dancing session, so she grunted as she stood up to go get it. “Hey, Mike.” She answered, purposefully ignoring the giggles and taunts from Paige and Johnny.

“Paul is here, Jenny. I was right.” There was a sense of urgency in his voice that struck her by surprise.

“What?”

“I found a number to a burner I’m tracking now that I believe is his.”

“What does he want?” Paige asked, sensing the seriousness.

“He thinks he’s found Paul.” She told them, moving the phone away from her mouth.

“He what?” Johnny leapt to his feet and helped Paige up. The three of them crowded around Jenny, trying to listen in on the phone call.

“I don’t know how long I can track him, but I gotta try.” Mike explained. “Listen to me, Jenny. I know I’ve only got one shot at this.”

“Okay, well, where are you?” Jenny asked, sensing a certain sense of finality to his voice that made her nervous. “Tell me where you are and I can be there in a flash. Or give me the burner's number, I can help you track it.”

There was a brief pause on his end. Johnny and Paige leaned just a little bit closer, trying to hear what he was saying. “I’ve got to do this, Jenn.”

“Well, yeah, but not by yourself, Mike. He’s my brother.” She raised her voice ever so slightly. "Mike, tell me you're not about to do something crazy."

“I’ll hit you guys up when I find him.” Another pause passed by before he said, “I’m sorry.” And then he hung up.

“What did he say?” Johnny asked, as she lowered the phone from her ear. She felt anger rising in her again.

“Jenny, what did Mike say?” Paige lowered her head to make eye contact with Jenny, trying to get her back to reality.

“He’s tracking Briggs' burner.” The voice was not Jenny’s. They all turned and saw Jakes standing before them, his hands shoved in his pockets. “Look, I know I don’t deserve anything from y’all. I’ve been… a little bit of an asshole lately.”

“A little bit?” Johnny repeated.

“Johnny,” Paige scolded him.

“No, he’s right.” Dale nodded. “I’ve been a very big asshole. Especially to you, Jenn.” She set her jaw as he looked at her, the anger only simmering instead of boiling. “I owed Briggs a favor and I tried to deliver on that. He didn’t want to hurt you, but…”

“Yo, if this is an apology, it stinks.” Johnny huffed.

“Will you let me speak, man?” Dale took a couple steps towards them, his hands now nervously messing with a pair of sunglasses. “I thought I was helping him. I thought it was for the best. But he’s… he’s worried about Charlie and her federale. I saw the look in his eye, and… well, it worried me. Yesterday, he came… to visit me and asked me about Charlie. He was supposed to be on a ship in the middle of the Pacific, that was the plan, but… I don't know what to believe anymore. Then, this morning, Mike tried to get me to talk. But I still don’t trust a rat and I don’t think you should either.” He pointed at Jenny, who still stood silently, glaring at him. Though, she could see his genuine concern in his body language. It was not very often when she saw him in a mood that wasn’t cranky or annoyed. Something in her knew how serious he was. “But I knew that if anyone was going to find Briggs and talk some sense into him, it’d be him. So I slipped him Paul’s burner number that he gave me. I know it doesn’t make up for anything I’ve done. But I hope that we can… one day… find some common ground?”

Paige and Johnny turned to look at Jenny, her face was almost unreadable. “I thought there wasn’t anything worth saving.” She countered, still no entirely convinced.

Jakes sighed slowly. “Well, despite what I’ve been trying to tell myself… you guys are the only family I got anymore.” Jenny saw the sadness in his eyes, remembering how upset he got about her finding out about his son. He had been angry at the time, but now he seemed… broken. “I don’t know what I’d do without you. Any of you.”

Johnny couldn’t help but smile. “I love you, too, bro.” He wrapped his arms around Jakes before he could say anything more.

“Okay, but I’m still not cool with hugs, Johnny.” He grunted, stiffening in his embrace.

“Too bad.” He squeezed a little tighter before letting go. “Good to have you back, man.”

Paige also came over to him but held out a fist for him to bump. “You’re still an asshole.” She joked, as he connected his fist with hers. Johnny and Jakes laughed as they felt their friendship growing back, like lizard growing back it’s tail. But then, they all faced Jenny once again, who stood as still as a statue, regarding Jakes carefully.

“I am sorry, Jenny.” Dale admitted softly as he took a step towards her. “I know that being sorry ain’t enough, but… it’s all I got.”

Jenny lifted her jaw slightly. Jakes was an interesting person, no doubt about that. He went around pretending to be a grumpy old man, cursing the world and the sun for being so happy, but he really was a softie way, way deep down. She remembered that she hadn’t like him at first when they had met. He had pulled a gun on her, and despite all the joking she pushed his way, he never reciprocated. But after one night at the Drop, where they had challenged each other to a drinking competition, she had started to see his tough exterior dissipate. “Well…” She finally said, clearing her throat. “It’s a start.” Dale let the corners of his mouth raise slightly. He held up his fist for her, an olive branch of sorts. She looked down at his fist and back at him. So many things in her wanted to keep holding a grudge against him. But he wasn’t to blame for Paul running away. So, she connected her fist with his, with a small smile.

“Ah, man. I’m going to cry.” Johnny cheered excitedly. “The gang is back together!”

“Not quite.” Paige muttered, trying not to dwindle on the reparations that were happening. "There's a few people missing from this equation."

“She’s right.” Jenny addressed the group. “Mike’s on Paul’s tail and Charlie is in potential danger. We need go rescue them.”


	22. Seek

Jenny hopped in the passenger seat of the car, where Jakes, Paige, and Johnny were waiting. “Okay, so I told Clark about Mike possibly tracking Paul’s location. He said when we get precise coordinates, he’ll send in a team. I was also able to fast-track getting Mike’s cell pinged.”

“Remind me again why we had to tell Clark all that.” Johnny asked, who was seated behind her. “We don’t even know if Mike will find anything.”

“Because, Johnny, for too long, we’ve been hiding things from the Bureau,” She explained as she opened her laptop, hooking it up the mobile hotspot on the phone. “We need them to at least think that we’re being cooperative. Who knows? Maybe he’ll find it in his heart to save the house.”

“So tell me honestly,” Paige leaned forward from the back seat towards her. “How many curse words did you have to use to get the serial mansplainer to listen to you?”

“Pretty much all of them.” She replied, as she entered information into her computer. “The man is truly a misogynist, so I think I might have shook him a bit.”

“So where to?” Jakes, who was driving, asked anxiously, putting the car in drive.

“Hold on, the hotspot is acting finicky.” Jenny worked to try and pull up the coordinates on Mike’s phone. He was hot on the trail of a burner that Paul had bought. She was ready to find him, so she could throw him into the ocean for all the bullshit he put her through. “Okay, got it. Take a left here.”

Jenny was able to direct them towards Mike’s location. He was still on the move by what she could tell. But he still had a good thirty-minute head start. While she worked to keep track of giving Jakes directions, he sped through the California streets, as Paige and Johnny held tightly to steady themselves. They had always joked that he was the craziest driver, but they had never been the passengers with Jakes in pursuit. And what didn’t help was that the sun was starting to set. So visibility was getting less and less by the minute. Johnny and Paige had never been very religious. Well, Johnny’s mom was a devout Catholic, but he never bought into it. Paige’s parents were basically hippies. But in that moment, both of them were praying to whatever deity they could think of.

Jenny was doing two jobs, actually. In one window, she was tracking Mike’s cell phone. The other was dedicated to a little project of trying to hack into Mike’s cell phone. This was something she hadn’t done in a while, mostly because just tracking where a cell phone was, was all she really needed to do for her job. But Mike was not answering her many phone calls or texts. She needed to find out the location he was tracking. If she could do that, maybe they could try and beat him there with the Bureau. And throw Paul into the ocean.

After some time, Jenny was able to get the location of the burner he was tracking. The good news was the burner was staying in one spot. “I got it.” She announced to the car victoriously. “I know where Mike is going. It’s a… beach house.” Has Paul really been chilling in a beach house all this time? Isn’t Graceland a good enough beach house? She looked over her shoulder at Paige and Johnny. “Paige, I’m going to send you the coordinates. Johnny, I want you to call in the dogs.”

“Why can’t you do that?” Johnny asked, still trying to steady himself.

“I’m on GPS duty. I can’t tell Dale where to go and talk to the Bureau at the same time.” She turned to her screen and looked up. “Oh, shit, turn right!”

Jakes yanked the wheel, the sound of rubber burning against concrete and honking horns followed after. “Dammit, Jennifer. You got to give me more notice than that.”

“Johnny, call it in.” Jenny shouted over her shoulder, as she sent the coordinates of the location of the burner to Paige’s cell phone.

“What exactly do you think we’re going to find there?” Paige asked them.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jakes asked as he forcefully changed lanes.

“I mean, in what state do you think we’re going to find Paul or Mike?”

Silence fell over the car. No one really knew the answer. Or maybe they did but didn’t feel like it needed to be said. “It doesn’t matter.” Jenny finally said. “All that matters is that we find him. Period.”

They continued on their journey, Jakes flying through traffic. Johnny was able to call in a TAC team and provide them coordinates the beach house. Jenny scanned her screen once again. “Okay, Mike’s just pulling up the house.” She announced.

“How far out are we?” Jakes asked.

“About ten minutes, give or take.” She said, hitting the enter button. What she read on the screen made her stomach drop to the floor. “Guys, we have another problem.”

“What?”

“I just tracked Charlie’s cell.” Jenny turned her head to look at the others in the car. “She’s at the beach house, too.”

Everyone silently exchanged worried looks, dreading what that could mean for them. Jakes stamped his foot on the gas pedal, determined to make it to the mysterious beach house before any real damage was done.

>>>

“So, cavalry on its way.” Mike reported, after having just handed his phone to Charlie. She took it and stepped away so she could hear better, her ears still ringing from the whole ordeal. “Jenny and the rest of the gang are set to arrive in about five minutes, so I would start preparing now.”

“Mm,” Paul nodded. They were standing just outside of the beach house, where Jangles, a.k.a. Raphael Cortes, had just been shot dead by Mike. Paul and Charlie had been tied up in an upstairs bedroom with music blaring to drown out their screams. Both Mike and Paul leaned against Mike’s car, trying to sort through everything. He was dreading having to face his sister’s wrath. “So, Agent Michael Warren. You found me. How’d you do it?”

“I knew you wouldn’t give up on Jangles.” He replied, sticking his hands in his pockets.

“How could you be so sure?” Paul Briggs asked him, his eyes staring forward as opposed to the man he was addressing who stood next to him.

Mike kicked a rock and sighed. “Because he killed Lisa.”

Briggs still felt his heart ache when he heard her name. He could practically still see her. Alive, laughing, vibrant. He never got a chance to say goodbye. “Yeah,” He agreed solemnly. “You know… I loved that woman. No one would ever come close. I only told you part of that story. This is… something I haven’t even told Jenny.” Mike shifted his weight and turned to look at his training officer, eager to hear what he had to say. “Jangles had me. Kept shooting me up with H, day in and day out. Over and over and over. Until he got me hooked hard.”

“What did he want to know?” Mike asked.

“The whole time, he just asked me one question. Just one. The whole time. Who?”

“Who?”

“Who was the mole in the Caza cartel? And then… the needle stopped. Those… were the longest days of my life. I’ve never felt so… beaten and weak. Pathetic. And then finally… the withdrawals became too much.”

Mike felt like lightning struck him at the moment. “You gave him your training officer.” He stated, remembering that he had told him that his training officer, Roberto, was in deep with the Caza cartel at the time. Now, everything made sense.

“Yeah,” Paul’s voice was laced with regret. “I gave him Roberto. I did. Jangles found him and… thanks to me, he found him living with a whole house of agents, including Lisa. And… he torched them all.”

“That’s why he let you go.”

Paul nodded. “I ran to the first pay phone I could find. I called the Estate. No answer. I called Lisa; no answer. In a blind moment of panic, I thought he had gotten to Jenny, so I called her. But she answered. Don’t get me wrong, I was relieved she was alright, but… I couldn’t stop thinking about Jangles. I was so out of it; I barely remember her coming to pick me up. The next thing I knew I was running up to the Estate. But I was too late… You know the worst part? He knew that living with what I had done would be worse than any death. And he was right.”

The sound of tires screeching to a halt made both of them look over their shoulders. The distant sound of sirens echoing over the beach scene. “Charlie!” They heard Johnny cry out as the rest of Graceland poured out of the car that had just pulled up. Johnny aggressively threw his arms around her. Jenny, who was in the passenger seat, came up behind them. “You okay?”

“Move, move, Johnny.” She pushed him out of the way and cradled Charlie’s face, before either of them had a chance to react. “You okay, Mama?” She looked down at her friend’s chest and saw blood dripping from it. More than likely a knife wound.

“Yeah,” She replied weakly. “I’ll live.”

“What happened? Why are you bleeding?”

Charlie tried hold back tears. She had already cried enough that night, in front of Paul and Mike. She had met her usual quota. But the amount of shame and guilt she felt was almost too overwhelming. “I screwed up big time.” Charlie finally managed to say. Despite her best intentions, she felt water leak from her eyes. “I should have never messed with a Federale and I should have never gone astray from the house. I’m sorry, kiddo.”

“No, no, it’s alright.” Jenny hugged her close, as they heard sirens pull up to the scene. “You’re alive. That’s all that matters.” She felt as though her breath was finally returning to her, though, she never felt it had left. Knowing that her friend was safe at last was the best feeling so far. “Medic!” She shouted at the ambulance and breaking away from her hug from Charlie. “We need a medic over here.”

She felt Paige grab her shoulder. When she turned to look at her, Paige was nodding behind her. Jenny turned around to what she at first thought was a figment of her imagination. Mike was walking towards her, and right next to him, was Paul. Her brother. Jenny felt her feet move toward him before she had even registered she was moving at all. Her mind went blank. He looked down at his little sister, half apologetic, and half glad to see her. “Hey, Jenn.” He greeted weakly, knowing that there were probably better ways to greet your sister after disappearing on her.

When Jenny got close enough, her right hand smacked him across the face. He yelped in pain and cradled the side that had connected with her hand. _Okay, I deserved that,_ he thought. But he looked back at his sister, who by now was barely able to contain her tears anymore. “You goddamn bastard.” She jumped up and hugged him tightly, like a koala clinging to a tree. Her tears running freely like a river. Paul held her tightly, feeling tears of his own form at the corner of his eyes. Mike, who was standing off to the side, watching the scene unfold, even felt chocked up. Jenny whispered to Paul through her tears. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again, do you hear me?”

“I won’t.” His already tight grip around her tightening even more. “I promise.”


	23. Ta-ta

They spent the rest of the night down at HQ, explaining all of the events that had transpired. Raphael Cortes’ alias was confirmed as Jangles. The ring of keys he was famous for as it turned out were trophies from his kills. The Bureau found keys from a bunch of different unsolved deaths, including a key that belonged to the Estate. Mike’s hunch had been correct all along. Jangles had set the house on fire.

Jenny barely left Paul’s side, clutching his hand or arm whenever she could. By the time the sun started to peak out again, most of the housemates were able to go back to home to Graceland. With Paul having been found, and him explaining about how he was trying to track down Jangles the whole time, he received a slap on the wrist, albeit a rather rough slap on the wrist, but they let him off the hook. They had found Juan Badillo’s apartment key on Jangles’ infamous key chain. It was clear that Jangles had killed Juan Badillo, and therefore, Paul was cleared of any suspicions. And Graceland was saved.

Mike had to stay behind to finish up the investigation, since it was his investigation after all. Paul was also asked to stay for some last-minute questions concerning the Jangles case. Everyone else went back to Graceland. Upon arriving at the house, they all immediately went to go collapse on their beds, exhausted from the night’s activities. Jenny slept for most of the day, finally allowing herself to be completely relaxed. She hadn’t fully realized how wiped she was until she fell onto her bed. It was one of those blissful, dreamless sleeps.

When she woke up again, it was practically night again. Johnny poked his head in the door and told her they were setting up a bonfire out on the beach. Jenny, feeling very groggy, sat up and agreed to join them once she was able to get her bearings. She was not used to sleeping through the day, so she felt pretty disorientated.

Slowly, she shuffled her way to the bathroom to splash some water on her face. Looking in the mirror, for the first time in a few days, she could see the dark bags under her eyes. Her frizzy, unwashed hair almost looked matted. Paul’s disappearance and sudden reappearance had clearly taken their toll on her. She hopped into the shower, letting the warm water wash over her. The warmth of the water hitting her skin, the feeling of the loofah against her skin, was very rejuvenating. It was just what she needed.

After taking a rather long shower, she slipped on her bathrobe and made her way to her room, toweling her hair dry. Of course, when she walked out into the hall, Mike was just returning from HQ.

“Hey,” He yawned at her. She could tell that he was just as disheveled as she looked before her shower.

“Hey, you just getting back?”

“Yeah,” He leaned against his door frame. “Dotted all the ‘I’s and crossed every ‘T’ in the case.”

“Fun.” She joked, fiddling with the towel in her hand. “So… everything’s settled?”

Mike nodded. “The Briggs investigation is officially closed. Jangles’ key ring had Juan Badillo’s apartment key, as well as the Estate key. They even have a lead on Odin Rossi, they think he might be in South America. And Graceland is saved.”

She smiled. “I wish I had champagne to pop. And Jangles is for sure dead?”

“As a doornail. Thanks to some pretty good shooting from this pretty awesome agent I know.”

Jenny rolled her eyes. “He sounds full of himself.” They laughed a little, alternating between locking eyes and looking away. There was an elephant in the room and they both knew it.

“You all cleaned and rested then?” He gestured towards her bathrobe.

For some reason, she felt herself pull the bathrobe tighter around her. Which she realized was weird. It wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen before. “Yeah, slept most of the day. Johnny is planning on a bonfire out on the beach in a bit, so I wanted to look presentable for that. You didn’t tell me that I’ve been running around here looking like an overworked raccoon.”

He chuckled heartily. “I never once thought that you looked like a raccoon. That is the honest truth.”

A brief silence fell over them. They knew what was going to happen next. It was the one thing they had always avoided talking about since the start. But neither one of them wanted to be the one to bring it up. Things between them had been, well, rocky, but good. Why spoil such a good thing? But had it been good because of the stress of Mike’s investigation? Now that everything was over and calm, it raised the question if the flame had died or not. Or if it even existed in the first place.

“So, it’s really all over then?” Jenny finally asked, gingerly testing out the waters.

“Yeah,” Mike dropped his gaze down to the ground. “Got offered a job. Special Assistant to the Deputy Directory.”

Jenny forced a smile. Why did she feel disappointed by that news? “Wow, that’s… that’s great, Mike. That’s like… a dream come true for you.” He could only nod. Sure, it was a great opportunity. It was what he had wanted from the start. And now he’s got it. But… what exactly did that mean? They were standing at a crossroad, metaphorically speaking. They could both clearly see both paths. One path lead to a happily ever after, as cliché and cheesy as could be. The other path was… well, the opposite. They both stared those paths, and then back to the other person, waiting to see who will take the first step and where they will go. “So… what now, Agent Warren?” Jenny asked, no longer able to avoid the burning question on both of their minds.

“Good question.” He smirked. He wished he was better on serious conversations like this. So Mike decided to just dive right in. He locked eyes with her. “I don’t have to take the job.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, my god, yes, you do. And you’re going to take it. Otherwise, I will never speak to you again. Or forgive you.”

“But Jenny…”

“No, don’t.” She shook her head and rested her towel over her shoulder. “Don’t ‘but Jenny’ me. This has been your dream since you were a kid, right?” She recalled the little essay he had shown her a couple weeks ago, detailing how much young Mike wanted nothing more than to be a part of the FBI. “So, you would be an absolute moron not to take that job. Besides, hasn’t that been your goal the whole time you’ve been here?”

He gently reached and grabbed a hold of her hand. “What about us?”

“What _about_ us, Mike? I don’t even know what we are. Do you?” He didn’t answer. They both looked down at their intertwined hands. It was almost like if they stared at the way they held each other’s hand long enough, the secret to their relationship would be revealed. “You’re not staying behind just for me. I’m not going to allow that. You need to go.”

“I don’t suppose… you would want to come with me?” Mike asked, looking at her hopefully.

Jenny sighed. She had really hoped he wouldn’t ask her that. A part of her wished they could both just walk away right now, perfectly content. Cheesy and cliché. “I would be lying if I said that I didn’t want that.” She answered. “In fact, you could probably say it’s all I want.”

He smiled sadly. “But?”

Damn, this was much harder than she had anticipated. With his damn puppy eyes pleading with her, and this… shockwave she always felt around him. She almost had to push the words out of her mouth. “But… I can’t.”

“Paul?” Even though he was asking, he already knew that Paul was the reason she was going to stay.

She could feel tears pinch the corners of her eyes. But she tried to blink them away. “I almost lost him, Mike. I almost lost him to Jangles. Twice. Last time I thought he was okay, and I left him to his own devices, look what happened. My mistake after the Estate was thinking he’d be alright on his own, but clearly that was wrong. I can’t… I can’t lose him again. I won’t lose him again. He needs me.”

Mike took one step closer to her, brushing her still wet hair out of her face. “And what if I need you?”

“Yeah, but you don’t, Mike, that’s the thing. That big boy job you just got offered…” She placed a hand on his chest. “You did that. All on your own. Just by using that great big brain of yours.” She looked around. “Paul was Public Enemy #1 for a while. And I just want to help him sort through it. Those stiffs in D.C. though, that’s where you’re needed the most. Believe me, they’re a bunch of pencil pushers and ass kissers. They’re going to need a guy like you. Graceland… doesn’t need you anymore, Mikey.”

He pushed himself off the wall enough to cradle her face between his hands, forcing him to look at him. He could see the faint layer of tears forming over her hazel eyes. “I don’t know if I can leave you, though.”

She scoffed and rolled her eyes at him. “God, don’t be so dramatic, Mike. I want you to go. You don’t owe me anything, just like I don’t owe you anything. We’re… just on different paths.” One stray tear got away from her, but he pushed it aside with his thumb. “And it’s okay. Really. I’m happy for you. We’re both getting what we wanted, right?” They rested their foreheads together, sending all the unspoken words telepathically to each other.

“Hey, yo, Jenny!” Johnny’s voice calling from the bottom of the stairs broke them apart. “How long does it take you wake up? I’ve already had to relight the fire.”

“I had to take a shower, Johnny!” Jenny snapped at him, after quickly wiping the stray tears away. She looked over her shoulder, hoping that he didn’t come up the stairs. She was not in the mood for Johnny to start teasing them again.

“Well, hurry up! Me and Paige are bored!”

“Jesus Christ, I’ll be down in a minute. Now, leave me alone before I set fire to your bed.” Jenny threatened him.

“Damn, girl. Okay. Hey, Mikey! You up there too?”

Mike glanced up towards the ceiling. “Yeah, Johnny. I heard. I just got home. Give me a minute to change clothes. I’ve been wearing the same shirt for 24 hours.”

They heard him groan. “Okay, but if you two aren’t down in ten minutes, I’m coming up there no matter what.” His giggle got quieter as he ran out of the house.

“God, that kid is insufferable.” Jenny grunted.

Mike couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, I’m… I’m going to miss that.” It definitely wasn’t the only thing he was going miss. Jenny looked at him, wanting to tell him that he would be missed too. Wanting to change her mind and just hop on the next plane with him and fly off into the sunset. But she had meant what she said; Paul needed her. He needed her more than Mike. Right?

“Well, I better go get dressed before he comes back.” She backed up slowly, gesturing towards her door. Jenny turned to disappear into her room. Mike did the same. But they both paused when their hands hit their door handles. Almost as if they had rehearsed it, Jenny and Mike looked over their shoulder at each other. Silently saying… well, exactly what, they weren’t sure. Apologizing? Admitting secrets? Telling each other goodbye? It wasn’t really clear. But they didn’t need words, whatever they were saying. Somehow, they both understood. Jenny gave him one last smile before pushing herself into her room, closing the door behind her.

>>>

Jenny descended the stairs a few minutes later and found Jakes, who was filling a cooler with practically every single beer bottle they had in the fridge. She couldn’t help but smile at the sight of him looking almost… domestic. “Exactly how crazy are we planning on getting tonight?”

He stopped for a moment to smile at her. “Johnny said to stuff it full, so that’s exactly what I’m doing.”

“Well, be sure to include the special rum Paul has hidden away in the pantry.” She reached and produced the bottle in question. “He keeps it hidden behind the edamame, so no one sees it.”

“That devious bastard.” He joked as she placed it in the cooler behind him. “I would have never thought of that.” He hesitated a moment before adding, “Hey, um… you doing good?”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “Paul’s back home and has a clean record. Everything’s back to normal. Or at least our version of normal.”

Dale’s smile only lasted a millisecond before it disappeared again. “Well, uh…in case you forgot… I am sorry. For everything, you know.”

A smile slowly spread across her face. “I know. You were being a good friend, Dale. I don’t have any grudges against you.”

He looked down at the bottles in his hand. “I still feel like I need to… do more to earn your forgiveness.”

Jenny could only feel sympathy for him, as it was clear that he was very remorseful of his past actions. "Okay,” She grabbed a handful of beer bottles from Jakes’ hands. “Keep supplying booze, and forgiveness is all yours.” With the high emotions of the last 24 hours, she was in desperate need of getting drunk. She met Johnny and Paige out by the fire they had started, handing them beer bottles. They spent the next couple minutes arguing with Johnny about how much lighter fluid is too much.

“So, what’s the scoop on you and Levi?” Paige asked her finally.

“Oh, yes.” Johnny hopped to sit on the other side of Jenny, sandwiching her in between them. “Please tell me. What happened upstairs? Did you have some celebratory…?”

“Guys…” She sighed. It was still a little fresh to talk about.

“Come on, you’ve dodged the topic long enough.” Paige nudged her.

Johnny smiled. “Yeah, just give us a little nibble.”

She conceded. “Look, Mike and I… it’s not going to happen, okay?” She took a sip of her beer. “But I don’t want to talk about that right now. This is supposed to be a celebration, right? I’m not going to be the one to bring the vibe down.”

“Oh, my god, you two are the worst.” Johnny groaned as he fell backward onto his back.

“Johnny.” Jenny scolded.

“No, he’s right.” Paige nodded. “This whole soap opera that you guys are creating for yourself is exhausting.”

“I don’t remember asking for either of your opinions.” Jenny argued. “This is a party. And as I just stated, I am not going to bring down the mood.”

“Who’s bringing down the mood?” Mike’s voice caught them all by surprise.

“Levi!” Johnny greeted cheerfully. “Word is you and Jenny called it quits.”

Mike looked over at Jenny in surprise. She shrugged. “I didn’t tell them anything. They’re just being nosy.”

Paige handed him a beer as he sat down near one of the large boulders that surrounded the fire. “Well, then I’m going to plead the fifth.” He joked, as Jenny secretly breathed out a sigh of relief. Yeah, everyone knew about their little fling, but it wasn’t the time to talk about that. The purpose of the bonfire was to celebrate the homecoming of Paul and the end of all the craziness in their lives.

They were all able to make small talk before Charlie came out to join them. Jenny rose to give her a big hug. “Welcome home, Mama.” She told her, after offering her a beer. “Good to have you back.”

“Good to be back.” She clinked her bottle against Jenny’s and took a seat around the fire. “Paul and Jakes were right behind me.”

Paige raised her glass towards her. “Here’s to bitches getting shit done.” Jenny cheered at that, and even Charlie had to crack a smile. She felt awful for all the things involving Raphael, or rather Jangles, and Paul. She couldn’t help but feel resentment towards herself for the damage she caused. But Charlie wasn’t about to ruin the rest of the house’s fun. “Hey, you okay?” Jenny asked her, seeing her inner struggle practically written all over her face.

When Charlie looked around the fire, she saw everyone’s eyes were on her. All of them were concerned. She lifted her beer bottle up. “I will be when I drink more of these.”

Soon, Paul and Jakes joined the group, with an obnoxiously full cooler. Johnny gave Paul big bro hug before Jenny could get a chance to push him away. “It’s good seeing you back in your natural habitat, Paulie.” Jenny told her big brother with a friendly nudge.

Briggs went around the fire, clinking bottles with everyone as they all settled down around the fire. “You know there’s not a set of faces in the world that make me as happy as these.” He told the group, ruffling Jenny’s hair affectionately. Normally, she would have tackled him for doing such a heinous act. But today, she just smiled and let it happen. “Five years ago,” He addressed the group, like he was about to give a commencement speech. “I had poison pumped into my veins. I tell you what, you think you’re strong. But that drug will turn you into its bitch so fast. It will take your sleep; it’ll take you joy. It’ll take your friends. Family.” He sat down next to Jenny as he continued. “It will take your lovers. It will take it all. And I thought for the longest time, that the poison had taken everything from me. That I was left with nothing. But… I forgot about home. I forgot about friendship. I’m sorry.” Jenny heard his voice crack a little, so she reached out and took his hand to comfort him. He gave her an assuring smile. Then he lifted his bottle into the air. “To home and to the people that matter.”

“Here, here!” Jenny cheered, as the rest of the group also cheered him. After she took her sip of beer, she threw her arm around his shoulders. “We’re just glad you’re okay.”

“You know, Briggs.” Paige spoke up. “I think after Jangles hit you in the head… I think it’s turned you a little soft.”

The group all laughed heartily, grateful for whatever levity they were able to get. “I could use some smoothing out on some edges,” Paul conceded through a fit of laughter.

Jenny stole a glance over at Mike, who was smirking, but not really smiling. He had a distant look in his eye as he stared into the firepit. Clearly, he was lost in his own thoughts. Sometimes, having a very large and intelligent brain could have its drawbacks. Could he be thinking about staying? No, he shouldn’t stay. His dream job was waiting for him. She didn’t want him to second guess that. “Wait, so can I just make one more toast?” She asked the group.

“Can’t we just drink and party now?” Johnny whined.

“It’s just one. I promise. And I won’t make a big speech or anything. But… I just wanted to make a toast to… Mike.” She dared herself to look at him. He looked back at her in surprise. “Who, if you don’t know, is about to live his dream on the East Coast. I just wanted to say… we’re going to miss you.” The look she gave him told him that she was not just talking about the group.

“Mikey!” The group cheered and chugged their alcohol greedily. Mike’s gaze lingered on Jenny’s a moment longer, as he held his bottle out to her. She reached over and gently clinked their bottles together before taking a sip of her own. Whatever they were, whatever was going to happen to them, at least they had their friendship.

“Okay,” She addressed the rest of the group. “Now let’s freakin’ party.”

>>>

“We’re going to miss you, Levi.” Jakes gave Mike one last bro-hug. They were all gathered in the entryway, wishing Mike off. He was about to catch his flight back East, to start his dream job.

“I’ll miss you guys, too.” He assured them, as hugs and high-fives were exchanged. Jenny purposefully held back, not quite ready to face him yet.

“You sure you don’t want us to go with you to the airport?” Charlie asked. “We can give you a proper send-off there.”

“Nah, it’s cool.” Mike told her, sneaking a glance back at Jenny, who was now staring at the floor. “Briggs is just going to give me a lift. No need for the fanfare.”

“Too bad.” Johnny shook his head in mock disappointment. “I had a whole brass band and everything.”

“We’ll save it for when you come back.” Paige rolled her eyes at Johnny. “Have a good flight, Mike.”

“Thanks, guys.” He smiled but stole another glance at Jenny, who was still refusing to make eye contact with him.

Paul noticed the glances between them and cleared his throat. “I’m going to go put your stuff in the car. Okay, Mike?” He reached down at Mike’s feet and grabbed the duffel bag, before retreating through the front door.

Charlie also caught on. “Yeah, and I need your guys’ help with that… thing.”

“Thing?” Johnny looked at her confused.

“Yeah, that thing, Johnny.” She pushed him back, giving him a secret look. “In the kitchen. Let’s go.” After some protests, Charlie was able to corral the rest of them back to the kitchen, flashing Jenny a wink.

“Well, that was subtle,” Jenny remarked when they were finally alone.

“Yeah, and they call themselves undercover cops.” Mike joked.

They finally met each other’s gaze. Wanting to say a lot of things, but suddenly finding words and the English language to be very difficult. “I assume you haven’t changed your mind?” He asked her, knowing that she hadn’t but hoping that she had suddenly decided to come with him.

“No.” She replied. As much as she would have loved to go with him, she was needed there. Her brother needed her. Mike had his own adventure to go on. “And you better not have changed yours.”

“Don’t worry, I’m going.” He took a step towards her. “But I’m finding it pretty hard to leave.”

She rolled her eyes. “Well, this isn’t goodbye. I mean, chances are we’ll run into each other again. Or you know there’s also phones that are a really great way to communicate nowadays. So, we can talk through that.”

“So what your saying is, I’m not going to be able to get rid of you?”

“I mean, I don’t think you’re ever going to be able to get rid of me, kid.”

“Or you’ll track my ass down?”

Laughing and remembering their first meeting when she had threatened that, she nodded. “Yes, that is still a possibility. And if you’re ever in California, you’ll always have a place to stay.” She gestured to the house, as he took one more step towards her.

“Yeah. And if you’re ever East side, you can… call me or something.”

Jenny swallowed and tried to still her fast-beating heart. The closer he got, the more her heartrate increased. “Yeah. We’ll just have to let it play out.”

By then, they were practically toe-to-toe. Their hearts practically beating out of their chest. “Jenny, I…”

“Just stop, Mike.” She held up a hand to quiet him. “Don’t give me those damn puppy eyes and start saying stupid things. This isn’t some cheesy romance movie. You don’t have to say anything. In fact, I don’t want you to say anything. I don’t want the last memory I have of you to be filled with… grand gestures of romance. That’s never who we were anyway.”

“I thought we don’t know what we were.” He teased.

“We don’t. But we’re not that. And like I said, this isn’t goodbye. It’s just… ta-ta for now.” There was a beat of silence before he scooped her up into a great big bear hug, her arms wrapping around his upper body, his arms around her waist. They held each other tightly, like they were adrift at sea and they were each other’s life rafts. They were committing to memory the feel of being in each other’s arms. Their smell inhaling in their nostrils. Finally, their muscles grew tired and they broke apart. But they let their foreheads rest against each other, Mike holding on to her hand and holding between them.

“Happy trails, Agent Warren.” She finally told him, forcing a smile.

“Ta-ta for now, Jennifer Briggs.” He slowly walked backwards, but still holding onto her hand. Studying her face and committing to memory. Even though it was one of the hardest things he had to do, he finally let go of her hand and turned towards the front door. He paused in the doorway, took one last look around the house that had taught him so much, had brought him new friends, new skills, and Jenny. His damn puppy eyes looking at her hazel orbs one last time. Jenny pushed the smile to stay on her face as she waved goodbye, and Mike finally closed the door behind him.

As soon as the door closed, Jenny stopped smiling, feeling tears well up in her eyes. “And why are you not going after him?” Charlie’s voice asked behind her.

She took a moment to blink away the tears. “Because I’m needed here.” She said, throwing an arm around Charlie’s shoulders. “I can’t leave my Mama behind, can I?”

Charlie shook her head. “Every little birdie has got to leave the nest at some time, kiddo.”

“Well, this nest is… broken. And I want to help fix it up.” Jenny insisted.

“Even if it means letting a good thing go?”

Jenny glanced over at the closed door again. This was what was best. This was all for the best for everyone. Right? “Yeah,” She said, looking back at Charlie, trying to give her a reassuring smile. “Now, come on. I heard Johnny’s making pancakes again and I want to see how long it will take him to burn his hand.”

>>3 months later>>

“You can’t do that!” Johnny complained, stomping one foot on the ground.

“Johnny, it’s called a shared space. You do not get hog the T.V. all day.” Jenny sneered at him, holding the remote out of his reach.

“But it’s the play-offs. Jakes and I have a fantasy league thing set up with Charlie and Paige. I got a lot riding on this.”

“That has nothing to do with whether or not you watch the game, Johnny.” She flipped the channel. “There’s a Dance Moms marathon going on right now, and I want to watch it. You can catch the highlights off the app or something.” Johnny groaned and stormed up to his room, mumbling curse words at her. He would have to watch the game on his phone. “Love you, too, baby.” She called after him.

“Man, shut up, Jenny!”

After laughing to herself victoriously, she settled down into the couch and opened the bag of Cheetos she had brought with her, ready for a day-off filled with crap television. That is until her phone rang. She lowered the volume on the T.V. and looked down at her phone to see who was calling. She read a name that she had not heard from in a while. A familiar feeling returned, one that hadn’t been felt in a while. Quickly, she answered the phone. “Mike?”

>>>

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, we have finally reached the end of our little story! Congrats on making it this far and hope you enjoyed it. I know, I sorta ended on a cliff hanger here. I've been toying with the idea of writing a sequel that would follow the events of Season 2... Who knows? Thanks for reading and please leave a comment telling me what you thought!


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